BLENDING LIGHTS, 



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BLENDING LIGHTS; 



^OR, 



THE RELATIONS OF NATURAL SCIENCE, 
ARCHEOLOGY, AND HISTORY, 
TO THE BIBLE. ^ - 



BY THE \ 

REV. WILLIAM FRASER, LL.D., 

PAISLEY, SCOTLAND. 



" Prove all things: hold fast that which is good." — i Thes. v. 



NEW YORK: 
ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS, 

.130 Bkoaoway. 

1874. 






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PREFATORY NOTE 
TO SECOND EDITION. 

_ >r 

'"T^HE Author is grateful for the kind interest with 
which the First Edition of this Work has been 
received, and is encouraged by having learned that his 
Exposition has, in some instances, proved satisfactory to 
students who were perplexed by recent theories and specu- 
lations. 

The Second Edition has been carefully revised, and such 
ences as seemed necessary have been made to im- 

,/ftant works which have been published since the First 
Edition was issued. 



Free Middle Manse, 
Paisley, January, 1874. 



NOTE 
TO FIRST EDITION. 



/ *T^HIS book originated in a desire to provide thoughtful 
"*■ and inquiring Young Men with an antidote to 
Errors, which the experience of the Author has led him 
to regard as widely prevalent. 

A part of Chapters XV. and XVI. appeared in the 
British and Foreign Evangelical Review, April, 1872, in 
an article on " The Natural and the Supernatural," 



Free Middle Manse, 
Paisley, April, 1873. 



CONTE NTS. 



Chapter I. 
Tendencies to Error — Subjects to be Studied — Practical Suggestions I 

Chapter II. 
The First Chapter of Genesis — Its Distinguishing Characteristics 
as a History — Origination of Matter — Import of "In the 
Beginning" 15 

Chapter III. 
The First Chapter of Genesis — The Origin of Light — Its Existence 
before the Sun was made separately Visible — The Origination 
of Life — The Creative Days 38 

Chapter IV. 
Unity of the Heavens and the Earth — Unity in the Structure of the 

Earth, and in its Life-Forms 57 

Chapter V. 
Scripture Allusions coincident with Facts in Natural Science 70 

Chapter VI. 
The Geologic Fulness of Time when Man appeared 83 

Chapter VII. 
The Bible Account of Man's Origin — The Opinion that he 
was Miraculously Born — The Theory that he was Naturally 
Developed 91 

Chapter VIII. 
Have there been More Origins than One for the Human Race ? — 
The Bible Doctrine in Relation to Recent Theories 116 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

Chapter IX. 

l'AGE 

Were our First Parents Savages? — Recent Theories as to the Origin 

of Civilisation considered in Relation to Scripture and History 142 

Chapter X. — Subject Continued. 
Were our First Parents Savages ? — Recent Theories as to the Origin 
of Civilisation considered in Relation to the Mental Faculties, 
the Moral Sense, and Religion 166 

Chapter XL 
The Antiquity of Man — The Bible Chronology — The Chronology 

of Geologists 195 

Chapter XII. — Subject Continued. 
Antiquity of Man — The Chronology of Archaeologists — Inferences 
as connected with Geology and History — The Danish Shell- 
Mounds, Swiss Lake Dwellings, and Egyptian Monuments . . . 223 

Chapter XIII. 
The Bible a Light among Ancient Records — Egyptian, Chaldsean, 

and Assyrian Testimonies to the Truth of the Scriptures 252 

Chapter XIV. 
Bible History in Relation to Prophecy — The Evidence of Prophecy 

— The Idea of the Supernatural Inseparable from it 296 

Chapter XV. 
Recent Theories regarding the Supernatural and the Reign of 
L aw — Evidence in Nature of the Supernatural 321 

Chapter XVI. — Subject Continued. 
Evidence in Christianity of the Supernatural — Results in the 

History of Christianity — Conclusion , 348 



BLENDING LIGHTS, 



CHAPTER I. 

Tendencies to Error — Subjects to be Studied — Practical 
Suggestions. 

Let no one, upon a weak conceit of sobriety or an ill-applied moder- 
ation, think or maintain that a man can search too far, or be too well 
studied, in the Book of God's Word, or in the book of God's Works, 
— Divinity or Philosophy, — but rather let men endeavour an endless 
progress or proficiency in both ; only, let them beware that they apply 
both to charity and not to arrogance ; to use, and not to ostentation ; 
and, again, that they do not mingle or confound these learnings to- 
gether. — Bacon. 

MANY have lost their early faith in the Bible, and 
are following its guidance with faltering footstep. 
Between them and hitherto accepted truths, the sciences 
have been placing apparently insurmountable obstacles. 
The trustful simplicity with which they once read the 
Sacred Record, has almost perished. Inferences by the 
man of science, conflicting with interpretations of Scrip- 
ture by the theologian, have rudely shaken their most 
cherished convictions. They are not infidels, they are not 
sceptics, for doubt is distasteful to them ; they long for 
more definite expositions and a firmer faith. 

B 



2 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. I. 

Such, possibly, may be some of you. In the midst of 
such discussions as are at present in progress, perplexity 
is not unnatural. Your most anxiously-sustained investi- 
gations have hitherto only multiplied difficulties, and a sense 
of responsibility alone constrains you to linger over con- 
clusions from which your judgment recoils. This hesitancy 
of belief may be at the outset disheartening ; yet it may 
be inseparable from that clearness of insight and that force 
of character, which, in the end, commonly create the 
stablest convictions, and evoke adequate proof to shield 
them. To shun or denounce you because you cannot 
acquiesce in what we believe, is inconsistent not only with 
the lessons of philosophy, but with His example who came 
to "bear witness to the truth." 

What is your duty, with the Natural Sciences on the 
one hand appealing so largely to your Reason, and the 
Scriptures on the other hand appealing so constantly to 
your Faith? Obviously, to depreciate neither, but to 
welcome both the Sciences and the Scriptures, to ascertain 
their harmony, to note their differences, and to accept all 
the treasures of truth which they may bring. Indifference 
is inexcusable as is excessive zeal, and apathy as antagonism. 

The Bible, free to us as are the fields of science, chal- 
lenges the severest scrutiny. It is the boldest of books, 
and demands the application of every test. As it is the 
most comprehensive history in the world, and gives the 
amplest scope for research ; as its earliest records are the 
oldest in existence, and its latest prophecies shed light far into 
the future ; as it touches depths and reaches heights which 
no other book can approach; as it brings into closest 
connection the Visible and Invisible, Natural Law and Super- 
natural Influence, the condition of Man and the character of 
God, it is exposed to assaults which no other book can bear. 



CHAP. i.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 



Systematic and persistent study is required at your hand, 
that you may estimate aright not only the facts and argu- 
ments brought against the Bible, but those also which are 
adduced in its favour. The task may be arduous, but this 
price is not too great for the settlement of questions so 
momentous ; and if the solution of some of them may 
have to be for a season postponed, yours will be the satis- 
faction which the conscientious improvement of every op- 
portunity invariably fosters. 

Different lines of investigation may be profitably followed 
but we may suggest the following as exhaustive, or nearly 
exhaustive, of the most prominent questions which modern 
research has raised. 

As the Bible is confessedly related to the natural sciences, 
archaeology, history, and modern civilisation, let it be placed 
successively in the midst of their facts, and let us see to 
what extent its statements can bear their light. 

There are many questions which none of us can honestly 
avoid ; and while some may remain unsettled, the unbiassed 
review of those solutions which have been already offered, 
and which have been generally accepted, will be found to 
confirm Scripture instead of confuting it. 

i. As to Science. — Have astronomy and geology given evi- 
dence for or against the eternity of the visible universe? Has 
biology determined the origin of life ? whence is it ? Have 
comparative anatomy and physiology, psychology and ethics, 
established more than one origin for the human race ? Are 
the incidental allusions in Scripture contradicted or confirmed 
by the more recent discoveries in Natural Science ? 

2. As to Archceology. — Can the Bible confront prehistoric 
revelations ? Antiquity is pouring over the oldest records 
increasing light. Ruins, monuments, inscriptions, parch- 
ments, have been emitting their wondrous testimonies, 



4 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. I. 

parallel with Scripture histories. Assyria, Egypt, Palestine, 
Greece, Rome, in their histories, revolutions, and domestic 
episodes, have all been interwoven with the statements of 
Scripture as with those of no other book. To what purpose 
has historic criticism dealt with the sacred page ? Is the 
Bible yielding, or is it growing brighter in the crucible of 
archaeology ? 

3. As to Modern History and Civilisation. — By its claim 
to uplift and bless the human race, the Bible is separated 
from all other books. It proposes to revolutionise man's 
moral history here, and to prepare him for a future whose 
course it in part delineates. Has it failed, or is it failing ? 
Has it been enfeebled by the lapse of ages ? Has it become 
effete amid changes which have given intellect new instru- 
ments and reason new spheres? Has it lost its former 
hold of the human mind, and is it sinking amid the tumult 
of bitterly conflicting opinions ? Has ever tribe been found 
which it could not raise and enlighten? or has ever civilisation 
outshone, in any land, its intellectual and moral splendour ? 

4. As to the Supernatural. — If the Bible is the book which 
it professes to be, and which we hold it is, the ordinary and 
the extraordinary, the natural and the supernatural, must be 
associated in its character and history. What is the warrant 
which men of science adduce for repudiating the super- 
natural while they accept the natural ? and by what reason- 
ing does the Christian apologist attempt to preserve their 
connection ? Is there no evidence around us in the con- 
trasts of barbarism and civilisation, as well as in the histories 
of nations, in their relation to prophecy ? and are there no 
facts in the strangely revolutionised lives of thousands in 
the Christian Church, which proclaim the singular moral 
force of the Word of God ? 

Assuming that you are willing to follow such a course of 



CHAP. I.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 5 

study as we have sketched, either to remove doubts which 
may be lingering in your own mind, or to aid some brother 
in his struggle to win the repose which you have gained, 
we shall, at the outset, offer some suggestions as to the spirit 
and the method by which your work should be characterised. 
It is of much importance to know, in the first place, what 
is, and what is not yet, within our reach. 

i. Do not assume the possibility, in the present state oi 
our knowledge, of demonstrating a perfect agreement be- 
tween Science and Scripture, or rather between the infer- 
ences of the Philosopher and the interpretations of the 
Theologian. Much remains- to be ascertained before that 
result can be realised. The natural sciences are confessedly 
incomplete ; some of them are only in their infancy, and 
can teach us little. Many years may pass before they can 
be brought into perfect accord with the Bible. As the facts 
of natural science have not been all ascertained and classi- 
fied, as its laws have not been all recognised, and as the 
inferences of to-day may be modified by the discoveries of 
to-morrow, it is absurd to be demanding immediate evidence 
of a perfect agreement between Scripture and science. Ap- 
parent contradictions are, at the present stage, unavoidable. 
There must first be an exact and exhaustive examination of 
all those points at which the Scriptures and the sciences touch 
each other; for so long as a single fact or a single law 
remains unknown, some important or essential truth, inti- 
mately related to the Bible, may be concealed. 

While the natural sciences continue incomplete, natural 
theology must necessarily have an imperfect foundation. 
As confessedly dependent on what is incomplete, natural 
theology can have neither the comprehensiveness nor the 
definiteness which characterises supernatural theology, as de- 
pendent on what is now complete and unvarying. We can- 



6 BLENDING LIGHTS. [chap. I. 

not force, the legitimate yet somewhat incoherent teachings 
of the one book — the Works of God, —of which but a few 
leaves have been separated, scanned, and paged, into perfect 
harmony with the teachings of the other book — the Word of 
God, — whose revelation of truth has been finished, accredited, 
and closed. 

2. Wait patiently, while you work persistently, for the 
solution of difficulties which may be continuing to press 
upon you. The experience of the past is an encouragement 
for the future. The sciences have again and again become 
their own interpreter, and rejected erroneous inferences. 
Many examples might be given, but one or two may in the 
meantime suffice. Human skeletons were found in what 
seemed old limestone, on the north-east coast of the main- 
land of Guadaloupe ; and after bold attacks on the Bible, 
which were met by some very weak and irregular defences, 
it was ascertained that the whole was a mistake, — that the 
limestone was of very recent formation, that the skeletons 
were of well known Indian tribes, and agitation ceased. A 
similar commotion was raised when the supposed imprints 
of human feet on limestone had been figured and described 
in the American Journal of Science; and Christians met 
strange infidel hypotheses by feeble assertions, until Dr. 
Dale Owen proved the imprints to have been sculptured by 
an Indian tribe. Thereafter, for a season, the scientific in- 
quirer and the theological student prosecuted their respective 
investigations in peace. 

There are important lessons for us in these, and in many 
similar facts. Christian apologists have often egregiously 
erred, not only in hastily accepting statements as to supposed 
facts, but in admitting the validity of the reasoning which 
has been eagerly founded on them, and in making a fruitless 
attempt to twist Scripture into harmony with what science 



CHAP. I.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 7 

itself has subsequently disowned. Facts ill observed, and 
afterwards mis-stated, have drawn many of our best and 
most candid students into unnecessary collision with Biblical 
critics ; and, after much heat in controversy, and the waste 
on both sides of much intellectual energy, the obstacle lying 
between them has unexpectedly evanished in the fuller light 
of science. The evil to be deplored is, that after the errors 
have disappeared their influence remains. The imprint often 
lingers long after the counterfeit die has been broken. 

3. There is a constant tendency on the part of discoverers 
to invest new facts with a fictitious interest, and those who 
are hostile to the Bible eagerly parade them for the dis- 
comfiture of Christians. Every fact is to be welcomed, but 
it is to be treasured up only that it may be adjusted to other 
facts, and become in part the foundation of a new truth. 
Isolated and unexplained facts have been too often uncere- 
moniously dragged in to give testimony against some Scrip- 
ture statement, and have been too easily held sufficient to 
push aside those accumulated evidences to its truth which 
history or science, or both, had indisputably established. It is 
not, indeed, surprising that the faith of many young men has 
failed, when they have observed the too ready acquiescence 
of prominent Christian writers in theories which necessitate 
the abandonment of some of the impregnable fortresses which 
have been raised by exact scholarship around those portions 
of Scripture which had been longest exposed to the fiercest 
assaults. Were this method common, no permanent founda- 
tion could be laid, and progress in any science would be 
impossible. Is it not absurd to be displacing corner-stones, 
and disowning, at random, first principles ? No system of 
philosophy, no science, — not even mathematical, the exactest, 
and in one sense the most permanent, of all the sciences, — 
could have any weight or make the least progress if sub- 



BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. I. 



jected to such changes in both its principles and their appli- 
cations, as have marked the history of Bible assaults, con- 
cessions, and defences. When facts which are utterly inex- 
plicable are presented, we should retain the fact in science 
and also the relative statement in Scripture, assured that in 
due time the solution will come. 

4. Neither accept nor offer apologies for the Bible. It 
has, of late, become common on the part of those who are 
-alarmed by the temporary triumphs which scientific investi- 
gation has given to those who are avowedly hostile to the 
Bible, to demand that its propositions be altogether dis- 
sociated from both Science and Philosophy, on the plea 
that the Bible was not given to teach either the one or the 
other. The proposal is plausible, but it is really unnecessary; 
for although not given to teach physical science, the Bible 
cannot contradict either its facts or its legitimate infer- 
ences. The Word of God cannot be regarded as by any 
possibility contradicting the just lessons of His works. 
Like every other book, the Bible must bear all the light that 
can fall on its pages ; and it must not only stand the tests of 
criticism and history, but vindicate all its claims as the "more 
sure Word of Prophecy." Otherwise, appeals for leniency 
are profitless. True, in its highest connections, the Bible 
is unapproachable by other books; it is easily distinguishable 
from them all ; yet in its human relations it must submit to 
all the ordinary appliances of scholarship. No apologies can 
justify a single error in either its science or its history, and 
its propositions are obviously inadmissible if they contradict 
human reason; they may be above, but they cannot be 
opposed to it. 

' 5. Akin to an easy escape from difficulties, through 
apologies for the Bible, is the tendency to glide into con- 
clusions directly hostile. The prevailing activity of the age 



CHAP. I.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 9 

is so unfavourable to leisurely investigations, as to facilitate 
the subtle advances of error. While many writers of the 
present day are as pre-eminently gifted, and as distinguished 
in the different departments of learning, as those of any 
preceding age ; and while their reasonings and their con- 
clusions are borne by the daily or the serial press to every 
man's door, multitudes think and decide by substitute. 
They want leisure, and trust to others. Rapidity of loco- 
motion, the chief physical feature of our time, betokens also 
its intellectual tendencies. Men read cursorily and decide 
rapidly. The daily newspaper is making book-study rarer 
than hitherto. It is felt in ten thousand instances to be 
distasteful or difficult. The subtle influence of the daily 
newspaper is telling on our thoughtfulness. We really seem 
to be approaching the fulfilment of Lamartine's prediction — 
" Before this century shall have run out, journalism will be 
the whole press, the whole of human thought. Thought 
will not have had time to ripen, — to accommodate itself 
into the form of a book. The book will arrive too late ; the 
only book possible soon, will be a newspaper." 

As one result of this process, truth and error are often 
imperceptibly commingled. So swift is the transition from 
one fact and inference to another, that truth and error, like 
different colours blent into one by rapid motion, become 
so much alike, that few can separate them. Thus with every 
advance of truth, error is wafted forward. The seeds of 
future tares and wheat are being profusely scattered. It 
cannot be denied, that while to almost every man's door 
are daily wafted accurate records of passing history, of the 
discoveries of science, of the triumphs of art, and of the 
generalisations of philosophy, the same messengers no less 
sedulously exhibit, now faintly and now in the strongest 
light, every difficulty connected with the Bible, both real 



10 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. I. 

and imaginary, the boldest objections of historic criticism, 
the theories of speculative philosophy, the apparent contra- 
dictions of science and Scripture, and the saddening conflicts 
of professing Christians. The constant diffusion of such in- 
fluences does tell in the long run, not only on less active 
minds, but on the most energetic, and it renders easier of 
acceptance every erroneous conclusion. 

But this incessant activity is a symptom of health. It 
augurs good. Rightly directed, it may strengthen character 
while it develops mental power, and gives a more exquisite 
appreciation of the just and true. But remember that 
everything depends on this Tightness of direction; and to 
secure this, unfailing caution is required. The wind and tide 
which, rightly used, would hasten the voyager to his har- 
bour, may, if unheeded, strand him on an unexpected shore ; 
and those subtle forces, and those under- currents, which 
should have aided in guiding us to a satisfying intellectual 
and moral repose, may, through the thoughtlessness or the 
indolence that at the outset disregarded a slight divergence 
from the truth, almost but not altogether imperceptible, 
destroy our happiness through the shipwreck and the ultimate 
abandonment of our Christian faith. 

6. Another common tendency in the wrong direction 
claims your attention. It manifests itself in repugnance to 
controversy or discussion in every form. Many shrink from 
it as unseemly, and seek escape in either solitude or study. 
While peace is in itself desirable, it is not always attainable. 
You cannot escape conflict by letting go the Bible ; nor can 
you traverse any of the fields of science without entanglement 
in the intellectual struggles of disputants whose reasonings 
have sometimes but little of the calmness of philosophy. 
Nor is this to be regretted. The repose of meditation is not 
so bracing as the discipline of occasional contest for the truth. 



CHAP. I.] BLENDING LIGHTS. n 

There are other advantages. The attrition of discus- 
sion often reveals and beautifies truths which would otherwise 
have remained unrecognised. Apathy or silence may 
shelter error without preserving truth. Intellectual indol- 
ence, bad for the world, is still worse for the church. The 
highest life is demanded by the Bible, and, therefore, also 
the greatest activity. From intellectual warfare, the sciences 
and the Scriptures have nothing to lose, but everything to 
gain. On Christian or sceptic, on prophet true or false, the 
Bible never enforces silence. It seals no thinker's lip. "The 
prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream ; and he that 
hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is 
the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord." 1 In the field of 
thought, nothing save the chaff perishes. Lost truths spring 
up again; and, beneath their spreading branches, vitiated 
reasoning, unsound criticism, and erroneous conclusions, 
ultimately decay as briers beneath the spreading oak. 

There are those also who deplore discussion only because 
it raises questions hostile to the Scriptures, and alarms 
the weak. This anxiety, though laudable, is fruitless. 
Vital questions are already discussed on all hands, and in 
every variety of aspect. There are disadvantages, but they 
are generally inseparable from the progress of truth. It will 
be admitted on both sides, that while the extension of exact 
knowledge contracts the sphere of superstition, it enlarges 
at the same time the sphere of scepticism. Superstition 
may be displaced without Christianity becoming its substi- 
tute; there may be a high and an attractive civilisation, 
based on science and its applications, which, in acknowledg- 
ing the intellectual and moral supremacy of the Bible, and 
nothing more, may for a season destroy credulity, only to 

1 Jeremiah xxxiii. 28. 



12 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. I. 

give fuller scope to No-Belief, and to evoke ultimately an 
opposition to the Bible hitherto repressed or unknown. For 
such results we must be prepared ; they are collateral, not 
essential or direct. They are, in fact, the price which we pay 
for our intellectual freedom. We are neither to falter nor 
hesitate because the increasing light, which is dissipating 
ignorance and extending the boundaries of truth, is at the 
same time indirectly opening to error a wider field for the 
distribution of her forces, revealing new weapons for her 
armoury, and enabling her to seize, and for a season to 
retain, positions hitherto unknown and unassailed. In the 
history of the physical sciences, and of archaeological dis- 
covery, Error has often rushed to the battlements of Truth, 
and, seizing some detached or imaginary facts, has wielded 
them against the Bible, until the sciences have themselves 
expelled her, and repudiated her reasoning. Such agitation 
is not to be deplored : it conduces to stability, it evokes 
more good than evil, and not unfrequently has it Jiappened 
that the superstition which long benumbed the church, and 
the infidelity which aroused her, have yielded to the unex- 
pected sway of some Bible truth, when a more definite 
meaning has been given to some natural law or providential 
dispensation. 

Those misunderstand the character of the Bible who sup- 
pose its safety lies in keeping it as far as possible from the 
rigorous investigations and the exact conclusions of science 
or philosophy. Such a method is indefensible. To pursue 
truth in one department implies, or should imply, not only a 
love of truth in every department, but also a resolute pur- 
pose to discover and dislodge every error. Which of the 
sciences, as preserved from controversy, is entitled to cast 
the first stone at the others, or their students? "Philosophy 
and literature," says Lord Kinloch, in an admirable work, 



CHAP. I.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 13 

" while professing to pursue truth in the composure of un- 
ruffled seclusion, and to be desirous of having it elicited 
by the healthy excitement of friendly debate, will protest 
against the dishonour of soiling their hands, or disarranging 
their robes in the turmoil of heated controversy ; and least 
of all will they consent to be defiled with the mire or exposed 
to the perils of religious strife. This plea is false in fact, as 
it is futile in philosophy. It is in fact false ; for literary and 
philosophical controversies have neither been few in number 
nor wanting in a keen and rancorous spirit. And, admitting 
that religious contentions have been still more rancorous and 
embittered, it is only what might reasonably be expected, 
on account of the higher interests at stake. The plea is, 
moreover, worthless on philosophical principles : for it 
eviscerates the distinction between truth and error of all 
meaning and value. Better not to admit the distinction at 
all, than, having admitted it in one instance, deny it in 
another ; or, what is worse, depreciate its significance even 
to thought, and that too in the most important of its appli- 
cations. All argument and all effort are for ever at an end, 
unless truth, — yea, all truth, — be precious; so precious, 
that in the legitimate pursuit of it we may and ought to 
put forth our utmost strength ; and in defence of it, when 
found, incur the utmost hazard." 1 

Do not be discouraged by apparently insurmountable 
obstacles. The boldest assertions and the most plausible 
reasonings need not disturb you. Difficulties seemingly 
insuperable have, in the past, suddenly evanished in the 
light of unexpected discoveries ; and every science, you may 
rest assured, will hereafter show strength enough and light 
enough to purify its own temple and be its own interpreter. 



1 "Christian Errors, Infidel Arguments," p. 97. 



14 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. I. 

The past may be held to be prophetic of future solutions ; 
and the sciences will be found not only correcting the 
mistakes and the arrogance of many of their students, but 
rebuking the too hasty concessions of Christian apologists, 
and either directly or indirectly revealing, at the same time, 
the impressiveness and the majesty of Scripture truth. 



CHAPTER II. 

The First Chapter of Genesis — Its Distinguishing Character- 
istics as a History — Origination of Matter — Import 
of "In the beginning" 

The archetype of science is the universe, and it is in the disclosure of 
its successive parts that science advances from step to step ; not properly 
by raising any new architecture of its own, but rather unveiling by 
degrees an architecture as old as creation. The labourers in philosophy 
create nothing, but only bring out into exhibition that which was before 
created. — Chalmers. 

AS a historical record, the first chapter of Genesis is 
without a compeer. It is unapproached. Its first 
announcements distinguish the Bible from all other books. 
Its simplicity, its directness of statement, its boldness of 
conception, its subdued grandeur, are throughout conspicu- 
ous. "The historical events described," says Delitzsch, 
" contain a rich treasury of speculative thoughts and poetical 
glory, but they themselves are free from the influence of 
human invention and human philosophising." The record 
begins where the investigations of natural science cease, and 
this very peculiarity has drawn upon the Bible the fiercest 
assaults. Every statement has been in turn sifted, rejected, 
and vindicated ; and one of the fairest tests which at the 
very outset we can apply, is carefully to compare the Bible 
account of creation and of the preparation of the earth for 
man, with those parallel histories by which heathen nations 
have hitherto been guided. 

Reserving for future consideration the mutual relations of 
its more definite statements, let us therefore at once place 



1 6 BLENDING LIGHTS, [chap. II. 

this portion of Scripture history side by side with the best 
substitutes which antiquity and modern history can furnish. 
Their incongruities are so apparent as to be ludicrous. If 
you take the Chaldean, the Phoenician, and the Egyptian, as 
illustrative of ancient cosmogonies, and the varied delinea- 
tions and beliefs of Northern Europe and India as illustrative 
of accepted records in more recent times, you cannot fail 
to recognise the wonderful pre-eminence of the Bible, and 
to be thankful for it. 

I. — Heathen Histories of Creation, compared with 
the Bible Record : — 
i. In the Chaldean myth, the "All" is represented as 
consisting of darkness and water, filled with monstrous 
creatures of compound form, and governed by a woman, 
whose name, Homoroka, signifies ocean. This woman was 
cut into two halves by Bel, the supreme deity : the one 
half formed the earth, the other heaven. Bel thereafter cut 
off his own head, and from the drops of his blood men were 
formed. 

2. In the Phoenician cosmogony, the beginning of the 
"All" was a dark windy air, a turbid eternal chaos. By 
the union of the spirit with the "All/' or universe, slime 
was formed, from which every seed of creation was educed. 
The heavens were made in the form of an egg, from which 
sprang sun, moon, and stars and constellations. By the 
meeting of the earth and the sea, winds arose, with clouds 
and rain, lightning and thunder. The noise of the tempests 
aroused sensitive beings, and henceforth living creatures, 
male and female, moved in the sea and on the earth. 

3. The Egyptians had several myths, the chief of which 
was that the heaven and earth were at first commingled, but 
afterwards the elements began to separate. " The fiery par- 
ticles, owing to their levity, rose to the upper regions ; the 



CHAP. II.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 17 

muddy and turbid matter, after it had been incorporated 
with the humid, subsided by its own weight. By continued 
motion, the watery particles separated and became the sea, 
the more solid constituted the dry land. Warmed and 
fecundated by the sun, the earth, still soft, produced different 
kinds of Creatures, which, according as the fiery, watery, or 
earthy matter predominated in their constitution, became 
inhabitants of the sky, the water, or the land." Similar 
absurdities prevail in the myths of Greece and Etruria. 1 Take 
the following quotation from the Laws of Menu, as illustrative 
of the strange beliefs of millions in India at the present day, 
who regard these laws as a revelation from' Brahma : — 

" This universe existed only in darkness, imperceptible, 
undefinable, undiscoverable by reason, — undiscovered, as if 
it were wholly immersed in sleep. There, the self-existing 
power, himself undiscovered, but making this world dis- 
cernible with fire-elements and other principles, appeared 
with undiminished glory, dispelling the gloom. He whom 
the mind alone can perceive, whose essence eludes the 
external organs, who has no visible parts, who exists from 
eternity, — even he, the soul of all beings, whom no being can 
comprehend, shone forth in person. He having willed to 
produce various beings from his own substance, first, with a 
thought, created the waters, and placed in them a productive 
seed. The seed became an egg, bright as gold, blazing like 
the luminary with a thousand beams, and in that egg he was 
born himself in the form of Brahma, the great forefather of 
all spirits. The waters are called Nara, because they were 
the offspring of Nara, the supreme spirit j and as in them his 
first ayana (progress) in the character of Brahma took place, 

1 See "Commentary on the rentateuch," by Keil and Delitzsch, vol. 
I., pp. 38-40; and "Creation and the Fall," by the Rev. D. Mac- 
Donald, pp. 48-60. 

C 



1 8 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. II. 

he is thence Narayana (he whose place of moving was the 
waters). From that which is the cause, not the object, of 
sense, — existing everywhere in substance, not existing to our 
perception, without beginning or end, — was produced the 
divine male, famed in all the worlds as Brahma. In that egg 
the great power sat inactive a whole year of the creator ; at 
the close of which, by his thought alone, he caused the egg to 
divide itself, and from its two divisions he framed the heaven 
above and the earth beneath ; in the midst, he placed the 
subtle ether, the eight regions, and the permanent receptacle 
of the waters. He gave being to time ; to the stars also, 
and the planets ; to rivers, oceans, and mountains ; to level 
plains and uneven valleys; to devotion, speech, compla- 
cency, desire, and wrath ; and to creation. For the sake of 
distinguishing action, he made a total difference between 
right and wrong. 

"That the human race might be multiplied, he caused 
the Brahman, the Kshatriya, the Vaishya, and the Shudra 
(the four castes), to proceed from his mouth, his arm, his 
thigh, and his foot. Having divided his own substance, the 
mighty power became half male and half female, and from 
that female he produced Viraj. Know me, O most excellent 
Brahmans, to be that person whom the male power, Viraj, 
produced by himself, — me, the secondary framer of all this 
visible world." 1 

These are merely specimens of what millions have believed 
in bygone ages, or are still believing. Ancient and modern 
cosmogonies alike contradict the commonest and most 
elementary truths of physical science. In the most sacred 
writings of the Hindoos, there are at the present day state- 



1 See "What is truth?" an Inquiry concerning the Antiquity and 
Unity of the Human Race, by Rev. E. Burgess, pp. 241, 242. 



CHAP. II.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 19 



ments so ludicrous as to sadden us when we reflect that for 
millions they are the basis of religious beliefs. The moon 
is described as having inherent light, and as higher than the 
sun ; and rational beings have for ages been taught and have 
believed that seven storeys of the globe rest on the heads of 
elephants, whose movements are the cause of terrifying and 
calamitous earthquakes. And the Mahommedan is taught 
by his Koran to believe that the mountains are created to 
prevent the earth from moving, and to hold it as by anchors 
and cables, — " And God hath thrown upon the earth moun- 
tains firmly rooted, lest it should move with you." 1 

While far removed from such incongruities as these, the 
Mosaic record shows also remarkable freedom from merely 
local or national peculiarities. To this fact too little import- 
ance has been attached. It is especially worthy of notice 
that such incidental details as the climate, the sky, and the 
configuration of the land give, to a large extent, their own 
character to the locally prevailing ideas as to the whole 
universe. The Euphrates and the Mesopotamian plains 
influence the Babylonian cosmogony; the Nile gives charac- 
ter to the Egyptian ; sunny slopes and contrasting heights 
determine the Grecian ; and valley gloom, forest depths, and 
wintry storms, the Scandinavian. It is easy to trace the 
physical basis of distinct cosmogonies. The bases them- 
selves may vary, but their connexion with religious beliefs is 
always uniform. Even national myths as to creation have 
not preserved their original cast. They have varied with 

1 Koran. Sale's Translation, vol. II., p. 96 and p. 266. 
Note. — The Mahommedans suppose that the earth, when first created, 
was smooth and equal, and thereby liable to a circular motion as well 
as the celestial orbs : and that the angels, asking who would be able to 
stand on so tottering a frame, God fixed it next morning by throwing 
the mountains upon it. — Sale's Koran, vol. II., />. 96. 



2© 



BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. II. 



the history of the people. While the religions tendency of 
the national mind, and the traditional basis as to the mere 
fact of creation, have remained, the form of the cosmogony 
has been completely changed ; it has been so moulded as to 
suit the different physical conformation and other varied con- 
ditions of the new country in which the people have settled. 
These modifying processes Baron Bunsen himself has acknow- 
ledged, when he says : " Again, the dispersed tribes formed 
many of their myths anew when they settled in their later 
dwelling places.. Thus, in the cosmogonic myths of the 
Icelander, as presented to us in the Edda, it is impossible not 
to perceive the influence of the peculiar locality of the North 
Scandinavian." x But then, no such process or influence is 
ever traceable in the Bible account. There is nothing local; 
nothing contingent ; nothing dependent on the traditions 
of any country ; nothing incongruous or absurd. 

How account for this? Have you ever made the at- 
tempt ? Was not Moses brought up in the learning of the 
Egyptians? How did he escape its influence? Was he 
not for many years a wanderer in the Arabian desert, and 
was he not familiar with all the traditions floating in the east 
and the west ? If the Bible is no higher than other records, 
is it not "strange that not a line appears which indicates in 
the least any such antecedent influence ? Might we not 
reasonably count on the Leader and Lawgiver of Israel 
showing some disposition to associate Eden, man's birth- 
place, with the Land of Promise, which he longed to reach, 
and which he saw in the distance as Israel's future home ? 
Yet, in this remarkable history, not one of these defects 
appears. Vast in its outline, it is yet so scrupulously strict 
in its minuter details, that it may be read without dubiety, 

1 Bunsen's " Philosophy of Universal History," vol. I,, p. 80. 



CHAP. II.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 21 

not only in the midst of the exactest records of antiquity, 
but in the light of those modern discoveries in physical 
science which bear most directly on its statements. In re- 
liableness and in consistency, it stands alone. The myths 
of heathenism regarding the origin of the world can be easily 
separated from it. They are all rebuked by its accuracy. 
While it contains every element of truth which imparts to 
them any coherency which they possess, it gives no place to 
their grotesque and deformed traditions. 

Whence this exact and most impressive record ? In the 
midst of that intellectual and superstitious chaos which, ac- 
cording to some theorists, antiquity at first presented, how 
arose this bright, solid, and wondrously harmonious system ? 
Traditions could not aid Moses. They only darkened while 
they multiplied the elements of confusion. Had he really, 
as some suppose, the sagacity to select, and the skill to com- 
bine, separate truths as to creation, while he cast aside the 
errors or the refuse of ages ? Before you can answer that 
question, you require to pass in review the grotesque beliefs 
and practices of all the surrounding nations at the time in 
which he lived, the ignorance of the people, the defective 
scholarship of the priests, and the absence of attainments in 
natural science; and you must inquire into the mere 
possibility of Moses or of any other man, however refined in 
feeling and profound in thoughtfulness, producing of himself 
such a history as shines in the first chapter of Genesis. The 
production of such a record as that out of the materials then 
existing, may be held as beyond the capabilities of any 
unaided human intellect. We do not reason here as to the 
inspiration of the record ; we are dealing only with the 
superiority of the Bible record over all others, as presump- 
tive evidence that it is worthy not only of your careful study, 
but of your unhesitating acceptance. 



22 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. II. 

It does not avail, for the settlement of this question, to say 
that the singular excellence of the Bible account of creation 
is due to the comparatively pure and correct views of the 
Divine Being which were held by the Hebrews ; for there 
is this prior question, how came the Hebrews to have these 
correct views? Seeing their tendency to idolatry and to 
other heathen practices, how is it that they preserved this 
historic gem in undimmed lustre ? If this history is indeed 
to be regarded as no more than a mere deduction from dif- 
ferent traditions by a philosophic thinker, it is certainly a 
solitary result in the region of human effort. It has no 
parallel. In exactness, in splendour, in magnitude, and in 
far-reaching insight, there can be found no similar result in 
the history of the most cultivated nations of either ancient 
or modern times. 

Passing from the connexion of this portion of Bible history 
with those widely-received cosmogonies, let us examine its 
constituent sections in their mutual relations. Can they be 
adjusted to one another ? And can they be satisfactorily 
harmonised with the facts of science ? 

II. — A Beginning. 

In the very first verse, we have an announcement which 
distances all that natural science can reach or reveal, — 
" In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." 
The doctrine of creation confronts us. The origination of 
matter, as against its eternal existence, is proclaimed. God 
is directly connected with the universe. As already indi- 
cated, the last position which natural science can reach, 
and which limits natural theology, is the starting-point of 
Biblical or systematic theology. It begins where the others 
end. There is no shelter given to Pantheism or Atheism. 
Both are alike repudiated. God is not set forth as a mere 
power moving within the mysterious haze of infinity, and 



CHAP. II.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 23 

having no more relation to this world and its inhabitants 
than the cold gaze of a distant star. There is neither 
hesitancy nor ambiguity. By this positive exclusion of 
eternity from the existence of the universe, and by repelling 
the idea of accidental creation, the fact of a beginning is 
raised in the Bible not only above all the entangling specu- 
lations of recent philosophy, but above the boldest reasonings 
of modern scepticism. This is, indeed, in some instances, 
frankly admitted by those who have pushed the discoveries 
of science to their present limit. They tell us that however 
much farther they may hereafter proceed, they have no hope 
of gaining the least insight into that origination of matter of 
which the Scriptures speak. This point they regard as 
beyond the aim of the sciences, for each is restricted to its 
own facts and laws, and is necessarily silent as to history 
antecedent to itself. " To ascend to the origin of things," 
says Sir John Herschel, " and speculate on creation, is not 
the business of the natural philosopher." 1 

Men of lesser capacity, though of equal sincerity, profess 
to despise the Bible declaration as to a beginning ; but their 
scorn is unavailing, for their reasoning and inferences are 
rapidly yielding to the pressure of the very sciences which 
they most revere and serve. Historically, the changed tone 
of scepticism is encouraging. Spurning the subjection of 
their reason to revelation, and pitying the " weakness " of 
those who disliked their arrogance and rejected their dogmas, 
they demanded proof of a beginning, and evidence for the 
probability of a close or change in the future. 

Accomplished Christian apologists found it vain to reason 
with those who paid servile homage to Plato, while they ridi- 
culed Moses, and who carried the principles which Newton 

1 Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy, p. 38, 



24 BLENDING LIGHTS. [chap. II. 

enunciated beyond their legitimate application. They were 
constrained to be silent, because, as yet, the sciences gave 
them no argument by which to meet the questions of their 
opponents. But the most recent findings of natural philo- 
sophy have strikingly vindicated the Scriptures, and have so 
cast discredit on the boasted assumptions of an imperfect 
science, that almost no man of acknowledged eminence can 
now be found to vindicate the eternity of the present cosmical 
dispensation ; and sceptical theorists have to content them- 
selves by boldly asserting that creation, or a beginning by the 
will of a Creator, is altogether inconceivable. 

Some of our highest authorities in physical science, pro- 
secuting their investigation without the slightest reference to 
Scripture statements, have given them direct confirmation, 
and have set aside the assertion of " inconceivableness." 
" The doctrine of a resisting medium leads us towards a 
point which the nebular hypothesis assumes— a beginning 
of the present order of things. There must have been a com- 
mencement of the motions now going on in the solar system. 
Since these motions, when once begun, would be deranged 
and destroyed in a period which, however large, is yet finite, 
it is obvious we cannot cany their origin indefinitely back- 
wards in the range of past duration. The argument is indeed 
forced upon our minds, whatever view we take of the past 
history of the world. Some have endeavoured to evade its 
force by maintaining that the world, as it now exists, has 
existed from eternity. . . . But we may observe that the 
doctrine of a resisting medium, once established, makes the 
imagination untenable, compels us to go back to the origin, 
not only of the present course of the world, not only of the 
earth, but of the solar system itself; and thus sets us forth 
upon that path of research into the series of past causation, 
where we obtain no answer of which the meaning corresponds 



CHAP. II.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 25 

to our questions, till we rest in the conclusion of a most 
provident and most powerful Creating intelligence." x 

And the following results, stated by Sir William Thomson 
are, by their definiteness, very encouraging to the Bible 
student, as confirming the declarations of the Scriptures, not 
only as to the commencement, but as to the close, of the 
present cosmical dispensation. 

1. " There is at present, in the material world, a universal 
tendency to the dissipation of mechanical energy. 

2. " Any restoration of mechanical energy, without more 
than equivalent dissipation, is impossible to inanimate ma- 
terial processes, and is probably never effected by means of 
organised matter, either endowed with vegetable life or sub- 
jected to the will of an animated creature. 

3. " Within a finite period of time past, the earth must have 
been, and within a finite period of time to come, the earth 
must again be, unfit for habitation of man as at present 
constituted, unless operations have been, or are to be, per- 
formed, which are impossible under the laws to which the 
known operations going on at present in the material world 
are subject." 2 

That statement is itself a valuable contribution to Biblical 
apologetics. Inexorable fact and demonstration have not 
only dissipated perpetually recurrent theories as to the eter- 
nity of the present material system, but furnished pre- 
sumptive evidence of a new and higher order of existences. 
These remarkable conclusions not only confirm the Bible 
declaration as to a commencement, but with prophetic direct- 
ness they sustain its delineations of change and dissolution, 
and of the establishment of "new heavens and a new 
earth." 

1 Bridgewater Treatise, by Dr. Whewell, p. 206. Edition, 1833. 

2 Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh/ 1852. 



26 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. II. 

III. — A Close. 

The reasoning which has established a "beginning," 
has also so distinctly demonstrated a close, that although, 
historically, we should reserve for a future stage our brief 
discussion of the subject, yet, logically, we have sufficient 
warrant for noticing it here. The commencement and the 
close are so linked together in our cosmical history, that 
what affects the one influences the other. Accordingly, 
while astronomy has given testimony to the truth of the 
Scriptures, geology has been no less decided a witness to 
both a beginning and a close. In subjecting the assump- 
tions of geological theorists to the tests of natural philosophy, 
Sir William Thomson has given a salutary check to unregul- 
ated speculation, and has freed the question of time from 
some unnecessarily distracting elements. 

Apart from his special line of investigation, geologists have 
come to the same conclusion with him regarding a com- 
mencement \ the difference between them and him is in the 
length of time backward to that commencement. "There 
is not," says Lyell, " an existing stratum in the body of the 
earth which geology has laid bare, which cannot be traced 
back to a time when it was not ; and there is not an existing 
species of plants, or animals, which cannot be referred to a 
time when it had no place in the world. Their beginnings 
are discoverable in succeeding cycles of time. It can be 
demonstrated that man also had a beginning, and all the 
species contemporary with him, and that, therefore, the 
present state of the organised world has not been sustained 
from eternity." "It is beyond dispute, and is proved by 
the physical researches of the earth, that these, the visible 
forms of organic life, had a beginning in time." 1 These 

1 "Sedgwick's Discourse,' 7 p. 17. 



CHAP. II.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 27 

conclusions are incontrovertible ; the difficulties which many 
have felt have arisen from the unwarrantable extension of 
time for the dawn of life-forms, and for their development. 
Millions of millions of years have been claimed for certain 
theories as to the beginning and the progress of life ; and, 
apart altogether from the Bible record, the question was ever 
forcing itself on the unprejudiced student, How determine 
whether the earth, in these bygone ages, could possibly be 
the home of life ? What evidence is there that the physi- 
cal conditions of the earth were such that it could sustain 
plants and animals in even their most rudimentary forms ? 
With a view to the settlement of this question, Sir William 
Thomson has rigidly applied to the gradual cooling of the 
globe and its motions, the principles of natural philosophy. 
In a very suggestive paper on " Geological Time," in which 
he has considered the retardation of the earth's rotation, he 
has made the following striking statement : — " But if you go 
back to ten thousand million years ago — which I believe 
will not satisfy some geologists — the earth must have been 
rotating more than twice as fast as at present ; and if it had 
been solid then, it must be now something totally different 
from what it is. Now, here is a direct opposition between 
physical astronomy and modern geology, as represented by 
a very large, very influential, and, I may also add, in many 
respects philosophical and sound body of geological inves- 
tigators, constituting perhaps a majority of British geologists. 
It is quite certain that a great mistake has been made — that 
British popular geology, at the present time, is in direct op- 
position to the principles of natural philosophy. Without 
going into details, I may say it is no matter whether the 
earth's lost time is twenty-two seconds, or considerably more 
or less than twenty seconds in a century, the principle is the 
same. There cannot be uniformity, The earth is filled with 



28 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. II. 

evidence that it has not been going on for ever in the present 
state, and that there is a process of events towards a state 

INFINITELY DIFFERENT FROM THE PRESENT." 1 

That is a remarkable finding. It corroborates prophecy. 
In delineating the close of the present system, the Bible 
has done what no other book has ever attempted. That 
" there is a process of events towards a state infinitely dif- 
ferent from the present," is a conclusion of the greatest interest 
to us ; and it encourages those to hold their position firmly 
who refuse to accept, as pictorial, or as figures of speech, the 
direct and literally historical statements of Scripture. We 
cannot modify them without incurring serious reproach. 

It is not long since every passage in the Bible referring to 
the dissolution of the present economy, was exposed to the 
ridicule of a merciless scepticism ; and Bible expositors 
abandoned truths which they should have held fast and 
defended. While there are descriptions in which the terms 
"heaven and earth" refer only to dispensational changes, 
and while some prophecies tell of revolutions in the Jewish 
nation, and of the introduction of Christianity, there still 
remains so much that is neither figurative nor symbolical, that 
doubt is inadmissible. Let us note some of those prophetic 
descriptions which are definitely historical, and forbid modifi- 
cation. " Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth ; 
and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall 
perish, but thou shalt endure ; yea, all of them shall wax old 
like a garment : as a vesture shalt thou change them, and 
they shall be changed." 2 In strains lofty as the Psalmist's, 
Isaiah unfolds the future. "And all the host of heaven 
shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together 
as a scroll." 3 " Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look 



1 " Geological Time," p, 16. 2 Psalm cii, 25, 26. 3 Isaiah xxxiv. 4. 



CHAP. II.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 29 

upon the earth beneath ; for the heavens shall vanish away 
like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and 
they that dwell therein shall die in like manner : but my 
salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not 
be abolished." 1 Although such passages as these, taken 
separately, cannot be the basis of any very decided conclu- 
sion literally, yet collectively, and especially when associated 
with New Testament teachings, they do possess legitimate 
significance and weight. The saying of Jesus implied future 
change when he said, " Heaven and earth shall pass away, 
but my words shall not pass away." 2 And have we not all 
been familiar from childhood with the impressively over- 
awing declarations of St. Peter and St. John : " But the 
day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night ; in the 
which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and 
the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and 
the works that are therein, shall be burned up. Seeing then 
that all" these things shall be dissolved, what manner of per- 
sons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness." 3 
In the no less sublime description of the Apocalyptic Seer, 
the fact of a universal change is assumed : " And I saw 
a new heaven and a new earth : for the first heaven and 
the first earth were passed away ; and there was no more 
sea." * 

If these and similar descriptions do not foreshadow great 
physical revolutions, language is meaningless. There is no 
ambiguity to shroud mistakes. As literal, these delinea- 
tions must be rejected or accepted. There is no middle 
course, nor neutral ground. Science, therefore, if not silent, 
must confirm or confute them. And science, as we have 
already seen, in the conclusion of Sir William Thomson, is 

1 Isaiah li. 6. 2 Matt. xxiv. 35. 3 2 Peter iii. 10. 4 Rev. xxi. 1. 



3° BLENDIXG LIGHTS. [chap. II. 

giving them singular confirmation. The oft-repeated asser- 
tion of olden scepticism, " All things continue as they were 
from the beginning of the creation/' 1 has been swept aside. 

New testimonies to the same truths have of late been 
multiplied. The heavens themselves, apparently the stablest 
of all existences, show very marvellous changes. Stars long 
known have been lost; they have disappeared in the abysses 
of space, and their name alone remains. No later than May, 
1866, the splendours of an apparently new star in the con- 
stellation Corona Borealis arrested the attention of astrono- 
mical students. Anxiously watched by competent observers 
in separate localities, its changes were accurately noted and 
compared. There could be no exaggeration nor illusion. In 
Birmingham, Manchester, Tuam, Rochester, London, Brus- 
sels, Canada West, telescopes were, without concert, turned 
to it, and keen eyes were riveted on every unexpected phase. 
It rose in its magnificent brilliancy; it slowly waned ; it dis- 
appeared; it has perished, "as lesser things perished before." 
Hath God smitten it ? By what terrible catastrophe has it 
been overwhelmed ? The light which burst forth many ages 
ago, has come in its course to us only now, to remind us that 
the heavens are in the hands of a Mighty Ruler, whose will 
is sovereign, and who alone is unchangeable. 

The Astronomer Royal has expressed his belief in the 
burning of that distant world. Inflammable gases, com- 
bining, it has been supposed, gave to it the appearance by 
which observers were dazzled and impressed. But with- 
out accepting or even recording conjectures as to the details 
of the conflagration, it is enough for our argument that a 
change of such magnitude has taken place, and that it is one 
of a series. It proves that the heavens are not so adjusted 
as to be eternally and exactly in the same state, and that as 

1 2 Peter iii. 14. 



CHAP. II.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 3 1 

much instability is now known to exist as to constitute pre- 
sumptive evidence on be'ialf of St. Peter's declaration. The 
eternal conservation of the universe, in its present connec- 
tions, can no longer be held as a fundamental truth in 
science. It is a fundamental error. The possibility of the 
earth being consumed by fire is not disputed. The confla- 
gration of distant worlds is an unquestioned fact ; and it 
needs but a slight alteration in the position of the earth, in 
its shape, in the direction of its axis, or in the velocity of its 
motion, to give an entirely new character to the globe. A 
delicate alteration in the atmosphere alone, might instantly 
render the earth uninhabitable. " Under a thinner air, the 
torrid zone might be wrapt in eternal snow ; under a denser 
air, and with different refracting powers, the earth and all 
that is therein might be burned up." 1 

In a vast economy regulated by law, there may be, as 
astronomical science teaches, a tendency to dissolution, 
slow but sure, which will produce, through the confusion and 
overthrow of existing adjustments, such amazing results 
literally as the Bible has foretold. 

The globe is carrying within itself volcanic forces sufficient 
to dislocate and overwhelm its inhabited crust, if only the 
balance of pressure and upheaval be in the least destroyed ; 
and chemistry has long attested the facility of an universal 
overthrow and conflagration. The subtlest and most delicate 
combinations are invested with such tremendous power, that 
they require but slight modification to ensure a literal fulfil- 
ment of the apostolic prophecy regarding the heavens passing 
away "with a great noise," and the earth and its works being 
"burnt up." There is to be "dissolution," not annihilation; 
there is to be a new economy, a new heaven and a new 

1 "Reign of Law," by the Duke of Argyll, p. 53. 



32 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. II. 

earth. The sublime announcements of St. Peter and of the 
Apocalyptic Seer, so long accepted by many apologists as 
invested with merely poetic drapery, and so long sneered at 
as sensational by rigorous physicists, have been rescued from 
misinterpretation. The statement that there " shall be no 
more sea," can only be ridiculed by those who are ignorant of 
the truths which the natural sciences have already evolved 
and vindicated. 

These possibilities might, of course, be accepted without 
a very strong probability of any actual changes beyond what 
are now transpiring, and they constitute only presumptive 
evidence on the side of Scripture ; but, in Sir William Thom- 
son's demonstration of an inevitable change which will render 
this earth unfit for man's existence, unless there be new opera- 
tions, which are impossible without the interposition of, a 
power not now manifested, we have an unimpeachable warrant 
for the literal interposition of St. Peter's delineation of the 
close of the history of our world as now constituted. It has 
a weight and an emphasis which no theological or critical 
disquisition can ever possess ; and is it not most encouraging 
to find the deductions of natural philosophy becoming thus 
the expositors and vindicators of revealed truth, as they 
fully aver all that the Bible has announced regarding not 
only the past, but the future history of the globe ? To 
those who have passed through the jungle-like speculations 
and propositions of the olden atheists, regarding an "infinite 
series," and the more recent metaphysical reasonings prose- 
cuted to prove the eternity of the present system of organic 
and inorganic beings, it must be an unspeakable relief on 
coming forth beneath the clear sky of definite truths, to find 
the Bible and natural philosophy blending their lights " as 
suns upon each other shining." That the universe is not 
eternal, may be held now to be incontrovertible. Creation 



CHAP. II.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 3S 

has been ; and questions as to the date of the beginning are 
of comparatively subordinate interest. There is, however, 
one other subject so closely connected with this part of our 
inquiry, that it must be examined. It is — 
IV. — The import of " In the Beginning." 
Is this the beginning of all beginnings? or is it the begin- 
ning of the formation of the heaven and the earth out of 
materials which had already been in existence? Some eminent 
Jewish commentators deny that this is the beginning of all 
beginnings; they exclude from this sentence the idea of 
origination, and they limit the statement to the forming or 
shaping of materials. 1 They found their conclusion on the 
assumption that the " in the beginning" is, as grammarians 
express it, in the construct state, and that thus it is limited 
by some thing of which it is the beginning. They do not 
admit that the Hebrew word Bara expresses the originating 
of all creation; and the question ultimately turns on the 
greater or less comparative importance which we attach to 
the first creation of matter, and to the first adjustment of its 
forms or the first impulse of its laws. The relative value of 
creating matter and of ordering its structure and functions, 
is an interesting, yet not a very profitable, subject of discus- 
sion. Professor Tayler Lewis makes the creation of matter 
the lesser work. " Taken as a fact," he says, " it is the 
lowest in the scale of the Divine works, if we may be allowed 
to make any comparisons among them. It is simply an 
exercise of the Divine strength. On the other hand, the 
giving form to matter, which is so clearly revealed as the 
true creative stage, is the work of the Divine Wisdom, and 
might be supposed worthy of God, as an exercise of his in- 



1 See Professor Tayler Lewis on the Essential Ideas of Creation, in 
Lange's Commentary on Genesis," pp. 126-130. 

D 



34 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. II. 

finite intelligence, even if it had no other than an artistic 
end. The carrying these forms into the region of the moral, 
or the impressing moral designs upon them, — in other words, 
building the world as the abode of life, and the residence of 
moral and spiritual beings capable of witnessing and declar- 
ing the glory of the Creator, — is the work of Divine Love. 
In revising this scale of dignities, the actually lower comes 
to be regarded as the- higher and the greater, merely because 
it is the more remote from us." 1 There is considerable 
force in this reasoning, as against those who seek to displace. 
God from the creative formation or evolution of the heaven 
and the earth, but it has little interest for the sincere Bible 
student ; because, between the creation of matter and its 
harmonious and productive evolutions, we find it hard to 
establish values. Attributes that are infinite — power, 
wisdom, love — have to be associated with both, and in their 
light all distinctions are lost. To describe the building of 
the world as merely preparatory to its being made the 
abode of- moral and spiritual existences, does not elucidate 
the subject nor lessen difficulties, because the very presence 
of these moral beings betokens of itself prior creative action. 
While conflicting criticisms have been pressed on us as to 
the special import of the term bara, create, the greater weight 
of scholarship is, I think, on the side of its expressing the 
origination of this universe — that is, the beginning of all be- 
ginnings, the creation out of nothing. " To the idea of a 
creation out of nothing," says Havernick, " no ancient cos- 
mogony has ever risen, neither in the myths nor the philoso- 
phemes of the ancient world. By the peculiarity that the 
biblical cosmogony has, for its fundamental idea, a creation 
from nothing, it is placed in a category distinct from all 

1 "Lange's Commentary on Genesis," p. 129. 



CHAP. II.] BLENDING LIGHTS, 35 

other myths. Hence, recently, there appears above all 
things a disposition to deny that this is contained in the 
history of creation, but certainly without success." In the 
commencement of the Gospel by St. John, we have proof 
that this is the beginning of all beginnings, when it is said, 
" In the beginning was the Word : the same was in the 
beginning with God : all things were made by Him." 

A subsidiary yet substantial argument for the beginning in 
Genesis being the commencement of beginnings, lies in the 
special use of the term bara as expressive of a creative act. It 
is remarkable that this term is in Scripture invariably applied 
to God, and never to any created being. God was known by 
the Israelites as Bore, Creator. Creation is a divine act, — 
something performed indisputably by God alone ; and the 
question has lately been limited to creation out of nothing, or 
a creation of something new out of what before existed. It 
is admitted that Yatzar, he formed, and Asah, he made, may 
be used as applicable to men ; and that Bara, he created, 
is alone applicable to God, but it is said that it does not 
necessarily express creation out of 7iothi?ig. Scholars do not 
now insist on this exclusive meaning. They do not assert 
that it never has such a meaning ; yet it is the only Hebrew 
term which expresses this idea, and we have to look to 
the context and connections of the term rather than to 
the term itself, to determine conclusively which view should 
be taken. " But that in the first verse," says Gesenius in his 
Thesaurus, " the first creation of the world out of nothing, 
and in a rude and unformed state, and in the remainder of the 
first chapter the elaboration and disposition of the recently 
created mass are set forth, is proved by the connections of 
things in the whole of this chapter;" and he adduces in sup- 
port of this opinion, the conclusions of Jewish Rabbis. 

You may be perplexed by finding that so distinguished 



36 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. II. 

a writer as Max Miiller refuses the conclusions of such 
scholars as Gesenius, at least on the grounds on which they 
rest them, and approvingly quotes those who regard bara 
as properly meaning to create out of pre-existing materials ; 
but let it be observed that he does not positively preclude 
its meaning in any circumstances to create out of nothing. 1 
As bara, in its most recondite application, can refer only 
once to creation as originating matter, and afterwards, of 
course, only to what is evolved as new from existing things, 
its special meaning must be determined by its connections. 
The peculiar description, In the beginning, gives emphasis also 
to the created which follows, as separating what has begun 
to be from the Creator who is eternal ; and it may be held 
as establishing historically the idea of an absolute beginning 
in time. Creation can only be understood aright as con- 
nected with the will of a personal God. Apart from God, 
creation by law is utterly unintelligible. Origination, or im- 
mediate creation, and development or forming in mediate 
creation, cannot be studied satisfactorily without reference 
to the will, the wisdom, and the power of the everlasting 
Ruler. 

But it would be unwise to dogmatise regarding the absolute- 
ness of this beginning, as the first of all beginnings. In the 
measureless past, in vvhich millions on millions of ages have 
sunk and have been lost, as pebbles in the ocean, there may 
have been other universes before ours, which have histori- 
cally run their course, fulfilled their ends, and perished. 
Brought out of nothing, they may have again been re- 

1 " Chips from a German Workshop," vol. I., p. 135. 
Note. — Interesting statistical details regarding the use and meaning 
of the terms which are translated, — create, form, and make, — are given 
by Archdeacon Pratt, in his most admirable work, ' ' Scripture and 
Science not at Variance,''' 1 pp. 47, 48. Sixth Edition. 



CHAP. II. J BLENDING LIGHTS. 37 

duced to nothing. The fact is conceivable, though not the 
process, unless we assume the eternity of matter ; or that 
when God has created a world out of nothing, He has done 
what he cannot undo. Universes may have come, run their 
history, and gone. Their histories may be Creation-seasons. 
Nor can we speak absolutely of ours being the beginning of 
all beginnings; because in other spheres of measureless 
space, which no telescope can ever reach, there may be 
other universes with earlier beginnings than ours. It is 
enough for us to know that this, our universe, our heaven 
and earth, was created by God ; and that the first statement 
in Genesis proclaims the beginning of all beginnings con- 
nected with the history of our globe. And we do no violence 
to reason when we assume that He who made one world in 
space, made all worlds in space ; that He who made one 
world in time, made all worlds in time ; and that He who 
gave matter its forms, gave it also its origination, or, that 
which is the ground of all its forms. 1 

1 See "Lange's Commentary on Genesis." 



CHAPTER III. 

The First Chapter of Genesis — The Origin of Light — Its 
existence before the Sun was made separately visible — 
The Origination of Life — The Creative Days. 

It is not for the refutation of objectors merely, and for the conviction 
of doubters, that it is worth while to study the two volumes, — that of 
nature and that of revelation, — which Providence has opened before us, 
but because it is both profitable and gratifying to a well-constituted 
mind, to trace in each of them the evident handwriting of Him, the 
Divine author of both. — Archbishop Whately. 

I. The Origination of Light. 

THE grandeur and impressiveness of the description in 
the Bible of the origin of light, and of the introduc- 
tion of the sun and moon, it is almost impossible to 
exaggerate. In his treatise on the Sublime, the Roman 
poet, Longinus, has quoted, with the highest admiration, 
" Let there be light, and there was light." Familiar as we 
are with the description, it is necessary to repeat it. " And 
God saw the light that it was good ; and God divided the 
light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and 
the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the 
morning were the first day. . . . And God said, Let 
there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day 
from the night ; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, 
and for days, and years ; and let them be for lights in the 
firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth : and it 
was so. And God made two great lights : the greater light 
to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night ; he 
made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament 
of the heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over 



CHAP. III.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 39 



the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the 
darkness ; and God saw that it was good. And the evening 
and the morning were the fourth day." 

The sublimity of this brief description has often been lost 
amid the sneers of the Infidel and the Atheist. " How 
could there be light before the sun?" was one of the 
triumphant questions which Voltaire and his followers rarely 
failed to press upon the Bible student. There was no escape 
from the difficulty ; for nothing could be clearer than the 
fact that the Bible did commit itself to the statement that 
light existed before the sun appeared. It does not say, ob- 
serve, before the sun-mass or sun-elements existed; but it 
does assert that there was light before the sun shone forth in 
its visible and appointed relation to this world. The state- 
ment was too explicit and too direct to admit of any 
satisfactory explanation beyond what the fair reading of the 
description itself allowed : — namely, that there was light 
before the sun was visible ; and this supposition, — for the 
state of science admitted of nothing more, — was invariably 
denounced as a weak, if not a mischievous, theological 
invention. Many scorned it as a superstitious belief, or the 
paltry resource of controversial despair. 

But the mystery has been receding as discovery has 
advanced. That there may be light without the visible sun, 
is now admitted ; and it is not going farther than the facts 
warrant, to suppose that light of old did thus exist ; not, 
perhaps, as absolutely separable from the sun, but as closely 
connected with its history. What was hidden is made 
manifest, as explanatory facts are being placed together. The 
sun-mass is itself dark, and around it is a wondrous sphere of 
light that is perpetually exhibiting phenomena which it does 
not lie within our plan to describe minutely. It is enough to 
remark that there have been discovered circles or spheres of 



4o BLENDING LIGHTS. [chap. ill. 

light widening as they recede from the central mass, which 
ages ago have apparently been so wide as to bring our globe 
within their compass. When it was said, " Let there be 
light," there was not so much a new creation as the evolution 
of a new fact, or rather the presentation of a new condition 
of things, in the already created heaven and earth. Originally 
darkness reigned, and then light was summoned into exist- 
ence. "God commanded the light to shine out of darkness," x 
wrote St. Paul in obvious reference to this passage. The 
light appears to have been so diffused as to bring to our 
earth, through subsequent ages, such supplies as may have 
been best adapted to whatever plant or animal life may have 
then existed. This view is sustained by recent inferences 
to which observation of the sun has led ; and which may 
render unnecessary the common supposition, that while the 
sun existed in its present form, with all its present forces, its 
light was too much lost in the vapours which hovered over 
the earth to admit of its being visible, as it is now. That 
vapours obscured the light, may be probable ; but the light, 
it would seem, was diffused under conditions different from 
those which now obtain, until the fourth day, when the sun 
was made separately visible." 2 As light, or rather a luminous 

1 2 Cor. iv. 6. 

2 Mr. Proctor, Honorary Secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society, 
in summing up the more striking results obtained by the observations of 
the late Solar Eclipse, has confirmed this inference : "The observation 
made by Liais would tend to show that, as has been long suspected, the 
Zodiacal light is sunlight reflected fromcosmical matter travelling continu- 
ally round the sun (for we could not expect the solar dark lines to appear 
in so faint a spectrum). If this is the case, the radiated corona cannot 
but be regarded as only the innermost part — the core, so to speak — of the 
Zodiacal region. Hence, we should be led to recognise the Existence 
OF Envelope after Envelope around the Sun, until even the vast 
distance at %vhich our earth travels is reached or overpast." ' ' The Late Solar 
Eclipse," by Richard A. Proctor, B. A. Good Words, June, 1872, pp. 423. 



CHAP. III.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 4* 

substance, appears to have been diffused beyond the orbit of 
our earth, there must, therefore, have been a period without 
darkness. But when the circumference of the envelope or 
luminous substance was contracted within the orbit of the 
earth, there was darkness alternating with the light, — that is, 
of course, supposing the earth then as now revolved on its 
axis. This would give the first day, evening and morning ; 
— evening, because the first contraction of the light within 
the earth's path gave such darkness as may have subsisted 
us. "And God divided the light from the darkness." 
Other changes followed by which the waters, the land, and 
the atmosphere were separated ; and when these had been 
completed, there appeared vegetation in varied forms. The 
light, in all likelihood, while passing into its present condi- 
tions, shone through vapours which also gradually changed, 
until the sun and moon appeared in fulfilment of the Divine 
purpose; the one to rule the day, the other to rule the 
night. The chief difficulty lies in ascertaining the probable 
extent of the light and its characteristics in that long 
cosmical history of which, as yet, only glimpses have been 
obtained ; but these glimpses are so much in harmony with 
the sacred page, that the arrogant charges of ignorance, once 
so freely made, have almost ceased. 

One or two facts may be mentioned, as confirming the 
more recent elucidation of this Scripture statement. 
Humboldt, in describing the beauty of the Zodiacal light, 
has said — " The Zodiacal light, which rises in a pyramidal 
form, and constantly contributes by its mild radiance to 
the external beauty of the tropical nights, is either a vast 
nebulous ring, rotating between the Earth and Mars, or, 
less probably, the exterior stratum of the solar atmosphere." 1 

1 Cosmos, vol. L, p. 69. 



42 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. III. 

"For the last three or four nights, between io° and 14 
of north latitude, the Zodiacal light has appeared with 
a magnificence which I have never before seen. Long 
narrow clouds scattered over the lovely azure of the sky, 
appeared low down in the horizon, as if in front of a golden 
curtain, while bright varied tints played from time to time 
on the higher clouds ; it seemed a second sunset. Towards 
that side of the heavens, the diffused light appeared almost 
equal to that of the moon in her first quarter." Not less 
striking is his description in another passage, of a cloud 
well known to astronomers, passing over the heavens lumin- 
ously and with great rapidity. " The light of the stars being 
thus utterly shut out," he says, " one might suppose that 
surrounding objects would become, if possible, more indis- 
tinct. But no : what was formerly invisible can now be 
clearly seen; not because of lights from the earth being 
reflected back by a cloud, for very often there are none ; 
but in virtue of the light of the cloud itself, which, however 
faint, is yet a similitude of the dazzling light of the sun. 
The existence of this illuminating power, though apparently 
in its debilitude, we discover also, in appearance at least, 
among other orbs." 

While these facts prove the existence of light without the 
sun being visible, it may be urged that the light spoken of 
in Genesis not only made day and night, but it must have 
been sufficient to sustain life. To suppose that it was 
adequate for this end, involves no violent hypothesis, for 
neither plant nor animal life is spoken of until there has 
been a separation of land and water. In the earlier and 
more recent geological ages, the heat was doubtless greater 
than it is now ; and this, taken in connection with a sur- 
rounding vaporous atmosphere, and with such light as 
existed, may have conduced to the development of what- 



CHAP. III.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 43 

ever plant-forms then prevailed. Difficulty in entertaining 
this view has been greatly lessened by the fact, that not only 
plant but animal life may be sustained under conditions of 
feeble light, great pressure, and intense heat, which were not 
long ago deemed incredible. 

A critical examination of the phraseology of the Bible 
regarding the light, confirms this view. The language is 
precise, discriminative, and significant. Moses uses one 
word for light in the third and fourth verses, and another 
word in the fourteenth and fifteenth. In the first instance, 
when he speaks of light essentially as light, or as a mere 
existence, he uses the term Or ; but in the second instance, 
when he refers rather to one of its practical purposes, he 
uses the term Maor — the instrument or the visible source 
of light to our earth and its system. It is " to give light 
upon the earth," v. 15. That seems to be worth noting. 
It is not a haphazard but a deliberate distinction, for there 
is a similar discrimination of terms between the " created " 
of the first verse, and the " made " of the sixteenth verse. 
" In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," 
but "God made two great lights." In the one we have 
" bara," create; in the other, asdli, he made or fashioned or 
appointed, of materials or objects already created or exist- 
ent, the sun to be a light bearer ; and so also the moon, 
which is known not to have light either in itself or imme- 
diately surrounding it. The Creator adopted and employed 
for this purpose the sun and the moon, and may have intro- 
duced, for the first time, such relations as now exist between 
them and our atmosphere. Adopting the latitude of inter- 
pretation which is warranted by the use of the distinct terms, 
bar a and asd/i, we suggest another view. When, after the 
deluge, God " Set his bow in the cloud to be a token that 
the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy the 



44 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. III. 

earth," it is not necessarily an inference that the rainbow 
had never before appeared. As all the physical conditions 
on which it depends had existed during man's history, it 
may have often been visible ; and, assuming that it was so, 
it only received a new historical connection when it was 
made a " token " of the Covenant. In the same manner 
the sun and moon and stars may have been visible long be- 
fore they were appointed to be " for signs and for seasons," 
and to fulfil a new historical relation to man, as they ever 
afterwards rule his day and night. 

Such critical statements cannot be pushed aside as an 
ingenious attempt, by theologians, to save the Scripture 
record from the consequences of scientific research. We 
are not ashamed of them. They have been recently con- 
firmed, almost to the very letter, by the remarkable conclu- 
sions of Sir William Thomson as to historical changes in the 
constitution of the sun. He has demonstrated that the light 
which is emanating from that central body, could not have 
always been coming from it j because, for ages, the condi- 
tions of the sun-mass did not admit of it. At a compara- 
tively recent period, historically, the sun began to shed its 
splendour through space under its present aspects. Science 
has thus already dispelled, to a large extent, the difficul- 
ties which beset the literal interpretation as to light, and 
has checked intolerant infidelity. What has been achieved 
is specially encouraging to those who have accepted the 
Bible as their guide. It is of the utmost value. No more 
striking confirmation of the scientific accuracy of the Scripture 
record has of late been given, than that afforded by recent 
investigations of the present condition and past history of 
the sun. While the creation of the sun, with the earth and 
the other heavenly bodies, is intimated in the first verse, it is 
not until ages had elapsed that the sun itself, as a distinct 



CHAP. III.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 45 

light-giving body, was adapted to our globe, and afterwards 
connected with the history of the human race. Surely these 
remarkable confirmations which natural philosophy, with 
unintentional directness, is bringing to the Word of God, 
may well evoke our gratitude and deepen our sense of 
responsibility. 

II. — The Origination of Life is another fact which 
science, as well as Scripture, has connected with the hand 
of the great Creator. 

It is after the introduction of light, after the separation of 
the land from the water, and after the globe had received 
its encircling atmosphere, that life was introduced. Geology 
confirms this. It has been clearly proved that life, in the 
geological history of the globe, so far from being of eternal 
duration, has had a comparatively recent origin. Reliable 
testimony is abundant, and might be largely adduced. 
" The infinite series of the atheists of former times," says 
Hugh Miller, " can have no place in modern science : all 
organic existences, recent or extinct, vegetable or animal, 
have had their beginning; — there was a time when they were 
not." l The inference of the geologist has been confirmed 
by the demonstration of the natural philosopher. Sir 
William Thomson has dissipated all speculation regarding 
an "infinite series" of life-forms, by proving, as we have 
already stated, that they could not extend over " millions of 
millions of years," because, assuming that the heat has been 
uniformly conducted out of the earth, as it is now, it must 
have been so intense, within a comparatively limited period, 
as to be capable of melting a mass of rock equal to the bulk 
of the whole earth. 

Life has its secrets. Its beginning is with God. He 

1 ''Testimony of the Rocks," p. 197, 



4^ BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. III. 

is the self-existent Life. He is the Lord and giver of life. 
His uncreated life passeth knowledge. It is vain to inquire 
when did life, as separate from Him, begin to be ? and what 
its forms, angelic or archangelic ? We stand helpless before 
insoluble problems. We are shadowed by inscrutable mys- 
tery. Alike in its lowest and highest forms, life is in Scrip- 
ture connected with God's hand. Vital force is not the 
result of inorganic matter. It controls matter ; it subordin- 
ates its elements to its own expansion and growth. By its 
action, chemical and mechanical forces are modified or sus- 
pended. In the laboratory of nature, no one has ever 
detected the evolution of life from either inorganic or dead 
matter. Professor Huxley has ingeniously made what he 
calls protoplasm " the formal basis of life. It is the clay of 
the potter," he says, " which, bake it and paint as he will, 
remains clay, separated by artifice, and not by nature, from 
the commonest brick or sun-dried clod ; thus it becomes 
clear that living powers are cognate, and that all living forms 
are fundamentally of one character." l But this explanation 
cannot be accepted as removing difficulties regarding the 
origin or " basis of life." Protoplasm is not uniform ; it is 
not chemically one. It varies in different plants and ani- 
mals. " For the protoplasm of the worm, we must go to the 
worm ; and for that of the toadstool, to the toadstool. In 
fact, if all living beings came from protoplasm, it is quite as 
certain that but for living beings protoplasm would disap- 
pear." 2 Thus, the difficulty is not solved, nor even lessened; 
and the questions still come to be answered, whence proto- 
plasm? whence its varieties ? and whence Life? Nor is 
the difficulty removed by the "cell" system, on which some 
German histologists have rested with so much confidence. 

1 ".Physical Basis of Life — Lay Sermons," p. 129, 3rd edition. 

2 " As Regards Protoplasm," by Dr. Stirling. 



CHAP. III.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 47 

Admitting that cells may be self-complete organisms, moving, 
growing, reproducing themselves ; and also that " brain cells 
only generate brain cells, — and bone, bone cells j " we come 
no nearer the origin of life. If cells can come only from 
cells, whence the first cell or the first series? In Dr. 
Bastian's recent elaborate work, an attempt has been made 
to show the " Beginning of Life;" but in such a way, and to 
such an extent, that his principles, if valid, should have 
completely altered ere now the whole complexion of the 
LiFE-history and condition of our globe. M. Pasteur, 
whose name is honoured wherever exactness in scientific 
research is valued, by a series of experiments, of which 
Professor Huxley has said, " They appear to me now, as 
they did seven years ago, to be models of accurate experi- 
mentation and logical reasoning," has proved that there is no 
evidence whatever that living organisms can come forth by 
spontaneous generation from unorganised matter. At the 
recent meeting of the British Association in Edinburgh, 
it was an accepted truth that "life can come only from 
life." Darwin himself has admitted this when he traces the 
commencement of all animated existences to the Creator 
having breathed life into two or three simple forms. The 
now almost universal acknowledgment that life has its origin 
from God alone, is another triumph of science on the side of 
Scripture. 

In the Bible, the historical record of creation has a scien- 
tific basis; but so great is its prevailing simplicity of statement, 
that we are apt to overlook the fact. Instead of commencing 
his record with the introduction of Man as the being 
most prominent and the most influential, — as the being, 
indeed, whom unguided reason most naturally would have 
first introduced, — Moses tells us that the lowest forms of life 
commenced to exist — plants first, animals next. This is as 



48 BLEND IXC LIGHTS. [chap. III. 

it ought to be. Plants drawing their nourishment from inor- 
ganic substances, were first created ; and, as animals could 
live only on plants or animals, they were next introduced. 
" And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb 
yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, 
whose seed is in itself, upon the earth : and it was so.'"' 
Then follows, in the succession of life, the origination of 
animals in the sea and on the land. Vegetable forms, as 
they spread, act on the carefully-prepared materials in the 
soil and the water ; they manufacture food for themselves, 
and, storing it up in their own fabric, they provide support 
for the succeeding animals. The Bible record thus harmo- 
nises with that which science has shown to be necessary. 
Whence all this accuracy ? Can it possibly be the outcome 
of chance ? 

There is another significant reference in the nth and 12th 
verses to one of the distinguishing characteristics of botani- 
cal science, which may be legitimately acknowledged. "And 
God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding 
seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose 
seed is in itself, upon the earth : and it was so. And the 
earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his 
kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, 
after his kind : and God saw that it was good/' The brief 
description is repeated with emphasis, as if it were intended 
to be noticed. Its aptness, as related to botanical science, 
will be acknowledged even by those who refuse to admit 
otherwise its importance. While the Linna^an system of 
classification according to distinctions in the flower, was 
brought as near perfection as possible, and served useful 
ends, it was felt to be inadequate, and in some degree un- 
scientific. Botanists strove to establish a more natural 
method, and they have succeeded by making the character 



CHAP. III. j BLENDING LIGHTS. 49 

of the seeds and other affinities of structure the basis of 
classification. This was found to be so satisfactory, that not 
long ago it was regarded as another trophy of science. It 
was, indeed, a new height gained, or rather an old one 
reached ; for Moses was seated there with that very principle 
written on his scroll, more than three thousand years ago. 
His distinctions are the same ; plants are classified by him 
according to their " seed " and " kind" or structure ; he in- 
timates a basis which is sufficient for every natural division, 
by whatever route it may be reached, whether by the 
elementary, the nutritive, or the reproductive function, and 
to which the labours of Jussieu, De Candolle, Endlicher, 
Lindley, and others, have added nothing essentially new. 

III. — The Creative Days. 

It is almost impossible, in studying the first chapter of 
Genesis, to escape the bewildering confusion which con- 
flicting interpretations as to the days have created. While 
on the other questions, Christian students and sceptics or 
infidels are ranged on opposite sides, the differences on 
this question are chiefly among Christian interpreters them- 
selves. As they expound and defend their respective 
opinions, they at first foster the prevailing confusion ; but 
this is generally done with so much of genial interest in one 
another's solution of acknowledged difficulties, that the con- 
flict has at last lost much of its keenness. The view that 
satisfies one, is not acceptable to another ; some regard the 
days in one light, some prefer a different interpretation, and 
others accept a modification of both. We are not in 
circumstances to insist rigorously on any one of the 
ordinary interpretations ; all that we regard as at pre- 
sent incumbent on us, is to explain what seems to us 
most consistent with the tenor of Scripture and the teach- 
ing of science. While doing this, we shall state some of the 

E 



5© BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. III. 

views with which accomplished Christian students of science 
have been satisfied. Their differences of interpretation 
are not to be held as expressing antagonism to the Bible. 
It is unfair and illogical to conclude from the existence of 
these differences that all of them are erroneous, and to assume, 
because of them, " that the Mosaic account itself is untrue." 
Opponents commonly "pass by the several points in which the 
interpreters concur, viz., that the account in Genesis is true ; 
that it was communicated to the writer by inspiration, that it 
teaches that matter is not eternal, that God created matter 
in the beginning • that the beginning may have been, and 
probably was, countless ages ago ; that the document de- 
scribes a creation which was distributed over six portions ; 
that man was created out of the dust in the sixth period ; 
that the Sabbath was instituted for the benefit of man in 
commemoration of this work." And they eagerly press 
attention on the points about which they differ; but they 
" are points which affect the explicitness of the narrative, 
not its truth." * 

Those theories have not found much acceptance which have 
attempted to explain the statements as to days, by visions or 
by the drapery only of poetic diction. The first chapter 
of Genesis is so explicit and so direct, that it is difficult to 
understand how its literal character can remain unobserved. 
Those who regard the days whether as periods or natural days, 
accept the literal or historical character of the chapter, and 
differ only as to the length of the time in which the specified 
changes took place. 

It is scarcely necessary to remind you that the Bible does 
not give any evidence as to the date of the beginning. 
"The writings of Moses do not fix the antiquity of the 

1 " Scripture and Science not at Variance." Sixth edition, p. 54. 



CHAP. III.] BLEXDING LIGHTS. 5 1 

globe," said Chalmers, when geology was yet in its infancy. 
He held that between the first verse, announcing a beginning, 
and what follows as to the work of the days, there was a 
period immeasurable by us, in which all the changes were 
evolved which rendered the globe habitable by man. This 
long unmeasured interval is admitted by both classes of 
interpreters. The writer who has given greatest definiteness to 
the opinion that the days were not natural days, but days 
embracing many thousands of years, is Hugh Miller ; and 
the most powerful advocate of the days as days of ordinary 
length, is Archdeacon Pratt. Hugh Miller assumes that 
each day not only represented an age of enormous duration, 
but gave scope for the growth and life of all those animals 
and plants with which, as fossils, the strata of the globe are 
stored. He identifies with the third, fifth, and sixth days 
respectively, "the period of pla?its, the period of great sea 
monsters and creeping t/iings, and the period of cattle and 
beasts of the earth" And these days he connects with 
geologic history — that is, with what has been commonly 
designated the Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary formations. 
The work of the fourth day, or the introduction of the sun 
and moon, he leaves undiscussed, as not lying properly 
within the sphere of the geologist. In this his theory has 
failed. It does not meet all the facts of the case; and, with 
regard also to the Sabbath as a period, there are difficulties 
which have not yet been overcome. But apart from these 
anomalies, the theory cannot be satisfactorily harmonised 
with the facts of geology. At least, so great latitude of in- 
terpretation has to be adopted with a view to their 
satisfactory adjustment, that it is a much simpler, and also, 
in our opinion, a much safer, course to accept the days as 
natural or ordinary. There have been, according to M. 
D'Orbigny, so many distinct breaks or changes, that they 



52 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. III. 

cannot be harmonised with the six Mosaic days. This is, 
of course, denied by evolutionists, whose system displaces 
every theory or interpretation, whether referring to periods 
or days; but although breaks and intervals remain, those who 
have accepted the period-interpretation have reasons for their 
conclusion which it is not our desire to ignore or repudiate. 
As that theory may present, to their judgment, the most 
satisfactory solution, it is their duty to retain it, while they 
watch with interest the progress of scientific investigation, 
and the bearing of its results on their conclusion. 

Modifications of this theory have appeared from time to 
time ; and we are not without hope that the day will come 
when science may constrain all classes to accept a common 
conclusion. "The seven days of creation," says a recent writer, 
"are neither seven literal days, of twenty-four hours each, 
nor yet seven definite historical periods, the events of which 
are literally recorded ; but as the seven seals, trumpets, and 
vials of St. John's Revelation, represented the history of the 
future by a typical representation of each of its grand divi- 
sions, without any of them being chronologically defined, 
so do the seven days of the Mosaic economy represent, in a 
dramatic and typical form, the successive changes which 
took place at creation, each grand feature being boldly 
sketched out in one scenic representation characteristic of 
that period." \ This supposition may to many prove the 
most satisfactory. 

The view which Dr. Chalmers propounded has, in its 
broad outline, the charm of simplicity and the advantage of 
placing the historical statement in the same light in which 
the others are received. "The first verse," he says, 
"describes the primary act of creation, and leaves us to 

1 ''Primeval Man Unveiled," p. 44. 



CHAP. III.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 53 

place it as far back as we may \ and the first half of the 
second verse describes the state of the earth at the point of 
time anterior to the detailed operations of this chapter." On 
this supposition, an immense interval elapsed between the 
beginning and the establishment of the present condition 
of the globe, ,and during that interval all the processes have 
transpired with whose results geologists are now conversant. 
It is much in favour of this view, as Dr. Duns observes, that 
it satisfied such philosophic observers as Sedgwick, Buck- 
land, Hitchcock, and Fleming. The interpretation which 
renders the days of natural length has its difficulties, but 
they seem to be less than those of the period-interpreta- 
tion. 

The changes which are described in the first chapter of 
Genesis, had reference specially to Man. The light, the 
atmosphere, the plants, the animals, are introduced in ob- 
vious relation to him ; and it is but natural to suppose that 
those changes only would be mentioned which had the 
closest historical connection with him. While we do 
agree with Professor Duns in separating " In the be- 
ginning " in Genesis from the "In the beginning" in the 
Gospel of St. John, we have no hesitation in accepting his 
statement that the first chapter of Genesis is not a history 
of any order of things but the present. * The paraphrase by 
Archdeacon Pratt (p. 49), omitting his supposition as to the 
process by which light was introduced, is in harmony with the 
opinion which we have long held, and often fully explained ; 
and his brief summary is, on the whole, an admirable state- 
ment of the view which we think most honours the histori- 
cal directness of the Scriptures, and best meets the require- 
ments of science. It is an expansion of Dr. Chalmers's sug- 

1 " Science and Christian Thought," p, 195, 



54 BLENDING LIGHTS. [cHAP. III. 

gestion, and is based on the wider range of facts which, 
since his time, scientific enquiry has produced. In the 
long interval between the first creation of the heaven and 
the earth, and the preparation of the earth for man, races 
of plants and animals lived, died, and became fossilised ; 
but because man is not specially concerned with these long 
historical processes, the Scriptures are silent regarding them. 
In this view the conclusion is quite legitimate, that " the three 
geological discoveries regarding the antiquity of the earth, 
the existence of animals and plants long prior to the appear- 
ance of man, and the existence of the sun, also, prior to 
the work of the six days, may be true, and yet find no op- 
position in the statements of the book of Genesis, inter- 
preted according to this theory which takes the days ; and 
Scripture and science are found to be not at variance. 
The six days' creation exhibits a series of creative acts, which 
terminated in the appearance of the human race upon the 
scene." 1 

The facts of geology warrant the inference that, in 
immediate connection with the time of man's appearance, 
there were introduced plants and animals, not before 
existing, which were specially adapted to his wants. 

While questions regarding details may be urged which, 
in the present stage of scientific inquiry, cannot be satisfac- 
torily answered, recent discoveries in geology and applications 
in natural philosophy, taken in connection with advances in 
Biblical scholarship, warrant our anticipating such a com- 
bination of results as may soon shed light through what is 
still obscure. Meanwhile, we may suggest the probability 
that, while in the six natural days the preparation of the 
earth for man was consummated through a series of divinely 

1 " Scripture and Science not at Variance," pp. 77, 78. 



CHAP. III.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 55 

instituted adjustments, these transactions are the outcome or 
crown of processes which had been transpiring through long 
antecedent periods, — but an outcome only through the medi- 
ately creative power of God. The six days' work, therefore, 
may be representative of those changes and advances which 
constitute the previous history of our globe as the intended 
abode of man. Revelation, in closing the Bible, unfolds the 
future ; Genesis, in its commencement, reveals the distant 
past. The Bible sheds light in both directions, until it fades 
in mystery ; but the same principles of interpretation can be 
legitimately applied whether we look into the future or into 
the past. We may assume, therefore, that as one prophetic 
description sometimes serves to cover widely separated 
future events, so the one historical description in Genesis 
may embrace events in the past lying widely apart. In 
Ezekiel's description of the coming destruction of Tyre, for 
instance, we have events brought together which were in 
part fulfilled in the siege of Nebuchadnezzar, and in part 
250 years afterwards, by Alexander the Great \ yet no such 
distinction in time is perceptible in the narrative itself. In 
like manner, the description, in the first chapter of Genesis, 
while setting forth those transactions which had most direct 
reference to man, may embrace those other transactions 
also which, although separated by intervening ages, yet 
pointed to the same result. 

And the six literal days may themselves be representative, 
as Principal M'Cosh supposes, " of six epochs, just as our 
Lord's prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem has 
throughout a reference to the final day." Taking this view, 
he indicates that the transaction recorded in the opening of 
Genesis may not be a mere vision, but a " reality which 
retains the natural days, as after the type of the natural 
epochs, and keeps the seventh day as a true day, and yet a 



56 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. III. 

prefiguration of the Sabbath of rest which remaineth for the 
people of God." 1 

It is unnecessary to prosecute this subject further; 
enough has been stated to show that the questions 
which have been raised may be differently answered, 
without displacing the Bible. Inferences may vary with the 
shifting results of science. Holding fast the Bible with the 
one hand, we may grasp all that science brings to us with 
the other, and retain it until we find for it an appropriate 
place. There is nothing to repel the Christian in the records 
of science. He can, therefore, afford to wait for more light; 
while, in the meantime, he lays hold of such supports as are 
within his reach. Temporary in their character, they may 
guide to what is permanent. If there is one lesson more 
than another which the progress of the sciences is teaching 
us, it is that of caution and the necessity of repressing 
dogmatic tendencies ; and if there is one benefit more than 
another which the history of this discussion is conferring, it 
is that of greater confidence in the truth of the Bible. 

1 See an Instructive Note in "The Supernatural in relation to the 
Natural," pp. 343, 344. 



CHAPTER IV- 

Unity of the Heavens and the Earth — Unity in the Structure 
of the Earth, and in its Life-Forms. 

1 ' Order is Heaven's first law ; and the second is like unto it, that 
everything serves an end. This is the sum of all science. These are 
the two mites, even all that she hath, which she throws into the treasury 
of the Lord j and as she does so in faith, Eternal Wisdom looks on and 
commends the deed." — Principal M { 'Cosh. 

I. — Unity of the Heavens and the Earth. 

THE first reference in Genesis to the unity of "the 
heaven and the earth," is amply confirmed and illus- 
trated by subsequent statements. The Israelites of old 
never doubted this doctrine; they believed that "the heaven 
and the earth" were necessarily one, because they were created 
and governed by the one omnipotent Ruler. It could 
scarcely be otherwise, for no truth was taught by their 
prophets with greater directness and felicity of expression. 

" While philosophy was still breathing mist, and living in 
a chaos, the opening sentence of the Bible had been shining 
on the Hebrew mind for centuries, a ray direct from 
heaven." * This unity was as fully and as emphatically 
taught, as were its commencement and its close. That the 
Israelites had any such conceptions of the vastness of the 
universe as has been unfolded by modern astronomy, no one 
supposes ; but their conceptions were accurate in so far as 
they were based on revelation. 

The freedom and clearness of the announcements in the 

1 "Man Primeval," J. Harris, p. 15, 



58 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. IV. 

Bible, have become only the more remarkable through the 
increasing light of astronomical science. God is called the 
" possessor of heaven and earth," * " the maker of heaven 
and earth." "The heaven, even the heavens, are the 
Lord's.''' - " Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the 
heavens, and stretched them out ; he that spread forth the 
earth, and that which cometh out of it." 3 In the New 
Testament, the same explicitness prevails. " At that time 
Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of 
heaven and earth.'' 4 And the angel " sware by him that 
liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven and the things 
that therein are, and the earth and the things that therein 
are, and the sea and the things which are therein.''' 3 Other 
passages in the same strain might be adduced, showing the 
necessary unity of the cosmical system as dependent on the 
will of one omnipotent and infinitely wise Being. There is, 
in the Bible, no conflict of creative powers ; there is no in- 
congruity of adjusted worlds, such as other records present. 
No one can peruse the books of the Bible, bearing in mind 
that they are separated by centuries, without being impressed 
by the fact of one design and one pervading spirit. 

We cannot reflect on the immeasurableness of the universe 
as taught in the Bible, without at once recognising the 
exactness of the terms used. They are not vague and 
shadowy or incongruous, but are so definite as to meet the 
generalisations of astronomy. Ideas at one time were not 
uncommon regarding the measurableness of the heavens and 
the numbering of the stars ; but in the Bible this arrogance 
found only rebuke, as it ever assigned to Deity alone the 
prerogative of measuring space and counting the stars. 



1 Genesis xiv. 19. 2 Psalm cxv. 15, 16; Psalm cxxiv. 8; Psalm cxlvi. 6. 
3 Isaiah xlii. 5. i Matthew si. 25. 5 Revelation v. 6. 



CHAP. IV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 59 

" Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able 
to number them." 1 " He telleth the number of the stars ; 
he calleth them by their names." a " To whom then will ye 
liken me, or shall I be equal ? saith the Holy One. Lift up 
your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, 
that bringeth out their host by number ; he calleth them all 
by names, by the greatness of his might, for that he is 
strong in power; not one faileth." 3 "Is not God in the 
height of heaven ? and behold the height of the stars, how 
high they are ! " 4 " For by him were all things created that 
are in heaven, and that are in the earth, visible and invisible, 
whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or 
powers ; all things were created by him and for him ; and 
he is before all things, and by him all things consist." 5 
These and similar sublime passages we can hold firmly in 
the light of modern discoveries ; they sustain all that has yet 
transpired on the side of science, and astronomy cannot 
dissociate itself from these great revealed truths. 

The idea of unity is strengthened by the impressive con- 
clusion of M. Maedler, that this visible universe of suns and 
their systems is moving around some grand centre, in a 
ceaseless, and, to us, mysterious march. Guided by analogy, 
Herschel reached this inference ; and, since that time, definite 
reasoning has confirmed it. M. Maedler's conclusion that 
the star, Alcyone, one of the Pleiades, the well-known seven 
stars, represents the common centre of the cosmical system, 
has in its support such concurrent approval that it may be 
accepted. While admitting the soundness of the inference 
that there is such a centre, some doubt whether it has yet 
been ascertained, and, like the late Sir David Brewster, sup- 



1 Gen. xv. 5. 2 Psalm cxlvii, 4. 3 Isaiah xl. 25, 26. 4 Job xxii. 12, 
3 Colossians i. x6. 



60 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. IV. 

pose that the centre may be dark, and of course not visible ; 
but whether Alcyone be the real centre or not, does not affect 
the conclusion as to unity. That there is a centre somewhere, 
is admitted; and long ages ago, before the light of astronomy 
dawned on this fact, it was in dim vision revealed to Job. It 
was unfolded to him as a truth, the full import of which pos- 
sibly he did not comprehend, and he repeats it in the ques- 
tion, " Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or 
loose the bands of Orion." 1 The profound significance of 
this long-hidden or mysterious question has, of late years, 
attracted attention as strangely prophetic of a truth which, 
at last, the once distant future has begun to unveil. That Job 
had penetrated the secrets of the heavenly mechanism, we 
do not affirm : but his expressions clearly sustain that truth as 
to a grand centre, which has only of late been accepted. 
May we not legitimately suppose that the glorious Being 
who hath not only framed the heavens in all their vastness, 
but hath also given delicate structure to an insect's wing 
and enriched the lily with its beauty and its fragrance, would 
give with equal condescension, to subserve ultimately a moral 
purpose, a prophetic series of truths in the economy of the 
universe ? Accepting prophecy as valid in relation to the 
human race, is it entirely improbable that He who has given 
glimpses of unforeseen changes in distant centuries of 
national histories, would vouchsafe some gleam of those 
facts or laws in the amplitude of space and the multitude 
of systems, which progressive science should ages after- 
wards fully interpret? As He has given the greater, 
we may surely anticipate the bestowment of the lesser ; as 
He has revealed distant secrets in the moral universe 
which we readily accept, may we not assume the proba- 

1 Job xxxviii, 31, 



CHAP. IV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 6l 

bility of His giving glimpses of realities also in the material 
universe ? 

Not onlyis the language of Job very definite, but its precision 
is beginning to be recognised as in harmony with scientific dis- 
covery. The more we learn of the mechanism of the heavens, 
the more significant does Job's inquiry become. For many 
centuries, mystery so shrouded the question "Canst thou 
bind the sweet influences of Pleiades or loose the bands of 
Orion ? " that men concluded it was meaningless. It is now 
intelligible. The word rendered Pleiades, — Chimah, in the 
original, — while held by some to represent a "heap" or 
" group," is said by others to mean literally a hinge, that around 
which other bodies turn or move. "The sweet influences" 
are "the ties" or the strong forces of Chimah; and the phrase 
legitimately suggests the idea of a controlling power which 
connects with this centre the circling march of the universe. 
" Truly, there are glories in the Bible on which the eye of 
man has not gazed sufficiently long to admire them ; and 
there are difficulties, the depth and inwardness of which 
require a measure of the same qualities in himself. There 
are notes struck on places, which, like some discoveries of 
science, have sounded before their time, and only after many 
days have. been caught up and found a response on earth. 
There are germs of truth which, after a thousand years, have 
yet taken root in the world." And are not Job's questions, 
chords struck long before their time, and only now is the re- 
sponsive note beginning to be rightly heard and understood ! 

Still grander and more imposing is the conception of the 
universe to which recent discoveries have led us. Its im- 
measurableness is overwhelming. The naming of the stars is 
not within the compass of human effort. It is the preroga- 
tive of the Creator alone to comprehend "the All." While 
the astronomer who neglects the guidance of the Bible, is 



62 BLENDING LIGHTS. [chap. IV. 



powerless amid the mysteries of numberless stars, the 
student who accepts its teaching, while he traverses space, 
is humble, and adores the Mighty One by whom all is upheld 
and controlled. He finds in stars rising above stars, and 
spreading beyond all that the telescope can reach, but one 
stupendous illustration of the Bible announcement as to the 
unity of all that is visible or faintly shadowed. Both the 
works and the Word of God are revealing to us, by their 
blending rays, the grand truth, that the magnificent array of 
worlds which has fallen within the sweep of human scrutiny, 
may after all be to the whole of God's material creation but 
as a leaf to the forest or a grain of sand to the globe. Vaster 
systems lie beyond, differing from one another, in all pro- 
bability, not only in mass and form, but in nature. Much as 
astronomers have measured, it is as nothing to what can be 
but dimly seen by them, or lies altogether hidden from their 
view. System rises beyond system, until survey is useless. 
Vast as are the dimensions of our solar system, it almost 
disappears in the seeming illimitableness of other sun-systems. 
After we have struggled to master their magnitudes and 
survey the space which they occupy, we are confounded and 
paralysed by the still greater task to conceive what " the 
All " must be, when we find that the whole system of stars, 
of which our sun is part, is no more than an atom in the far 
sweeping frame of which the star system consists. Truly, 
apart from the Bible, there is no grander nor more impres- 
sive subject of study than the immensity and the structure of 
the heavens, as opened out in the occasional expositions of 
astronomers during the last hundred years, or rather since 
Wright of Durham, in 1750, enunciated his theory of the 
construction of the universe. There is discoverable a one- 
ness, or unity, through all this stupendous vastness, which is 
inexpressibly overawing. Its contemplation compels stillness ; 



CHAP. IV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 63 

it makes mind motionless. Measureless, exhaustless, — to us 
incomprehensibly infinite, yet harmonious, — the universe 
overpowers the imagination itself, until, guided by the Bible, 
we turn in our helplessness to the Creator and Preserver of 
all as the Lord God omnipotent reigning, and are satisfied 
by finding that our ignorance is lost in the fulness of His 
infinite wisdom. Entranced by harmony of universal move- 
ment, and overawed by measureless extent, our overburdened 
thoughts can find appropriate outlet only in the language of 
the angels' song, "Great and marvellous are thy works, 
Lord God Almighty, in wisdom hast thou made them all." 1 

II. — Unity in the Structure of the Globe, and in 
its Life-Forms. 

The unity visible in the mechanism of the heavens is no 
less distinctly recognisable in the mechanism of the earth. 
What astronomy is revealing in the one department, geology 
is revealing in the other. While the facts of astronomy lie 
in the area of immeasurable space, and the facts of geology 
in the area of yet indefinite ages, purpose has always 
indubitably appeared in both. Strata separated by long 
periods are yet bound together by an evident design, which, 
prevailing alike in gentle and in tumultuating movements, 
includes islands and continents, and is ever apparent in 
crystallisation, in mineral aggregation, in fusion by heat, 
in processes of cooling, and in the storage of the globe in 
relation to the wants of Man. The gold, the silver, the 
iron, the slate, the coal, the limestone, the salt, and other 
metals and minerals, all presuppose in their allocation and 
disposition a guiding power, and point anticipatively to a 
period of uses. They are prophetic of Man's appearance. 
His advent at least is their explanation. Man's presence, 

1 Revelation xv. 3. 



^4 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. IV. 



witlTa bodily structure to seize these materials, and an 
intellect to develop and combine their applications in arts and 
manufactures, shows not only a beautiful harmony in the 
whole fabric, but how little have the earth and man been 
dependent for their present constitution and connection on 
the chance movements of blind force. 

As this part of the subject will fall to be more fully con- 
sidered when we examine the preparation of the earth for 
man, we may omit further reference to it here. 

The unity visible in the structure of the globe, is no less 
conspicuously manifest in the Life-Forms which are repre- 
sented by the fossils of succeeding ages, and by now existing 
plants and animals. 

Widely-separate rock formations show distinctly continuity 
of life-forms. Though disconnected by descent, they are 
one in typical outline. There is such similarity in general 
structure, that the idea of plan cannot be discountenanced 
without a violation of the common principles of observation 
and inference. Each life-age has been prophetic of that 
which is to follow. Animals of advanced structure in the one 
age, give place to animals of still higher form and greater 
beauty in the next, but not always of greater delicacy and 
intricacy in their anatomical framework, nor more subtle in 
the play of life forces, but having new adaptations to climatic 
and other conditions. This progression has culminated in 
man. 

Agassiz, while acknowledging that there is evidently an 
advance from lower to higher animal forms, — that there is 
increasing closeness of structure to those now existing, and 
that especially among vertebrates there is a growing likeness 
to man, — yet denies that these connections are, in any 
degree, the consequence of parental descent. " The link," 
he says, " by which they are connected is of a higher and 



CHAP. IV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 65 

immaterial nature, and their connection is to be sought in 
the view of the Creator himself, whose aim in forming the 
earth, in allowing it to undergo the successive changes which 
geology has pointed out, and in creating successively all the 
different types of animals which have passed away, was to 
introduce Man upon the surface of the earth. Man is the 
end towards which all the animal creation has tended, from 
the first appearance of the first Palaeozoic fishes." 1 

Cuvier and Hugh Miller may be held as representing the 
same conclusions, though based on a lesser area of fact and 
observation, and Professor Owen has strikingly enforced 
them. It is indeed difficult to conceive of the utter absence 
of purpose in the mind of the Deity, and that Man was 
never foreshadowed in the animal structures of succeeding 
ages. Although we cannot discern and describe the process 
by which natural laws or secondary causes have educed the 
results which appear, we may rest assured that a presiding 
Intelligence directed them all. " But if, without derogation 
of the Divine Power," says Professor Owen, " we may con- 
ceive of the existence of such ministers, and personify them 
by the term " Nature," we learn from the past history of our 
globe that she has advanced with slow and stately steps, 
guided by the archetypal light amidst the wreck of worlds, 
from the first embodiment of the vertebrate idea under its 
old ichythyic vestment, until it became arrayed in the 
glorious garb of the human form." 2 

The same system that gives symmetry, gracefulness, and 
beauty to the cedar, the vine, and the rose, built up in 
olden eras the gigantic tree-ferns. The earliest shells that 
have been found, protected their inmates like species now 

1 Agassiz and Gould's "Comparative Physiology," p. 417. 
2 Professor Owen's "Discourse on Limbs," p. 86. 
F 



66 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. IV. 

living; and the first spiral shells discovered, were shapedbythe 
same mathematical principles by which, in our seas, molluscs 
are at the present day regulating their dwellings. The verte- 
bral columns of fishes, birds, and quadrupeds, and even the 
teeth of extinct animals, are all constructed on a definite 
plan or model. In both animal and vegetable physiology, 
there are revealed those minute mechanisms which no less 
strikingly attest unity of plan. So abundant are the details 
and so manifold the microscopic marvels which here meet 
us, that we become bewildered by what is numberless, as in 
astronomy we are overawed by vastness. Those who have 
made the greatest discoveries, and who still prosecute exact 
researches, should be the readiest to say with Dr. Carpenter, 
" And when the physiologist is inclined to dwell unduly upon 
his capacity for penetrating the secrets of nature, it may be 
salutary for him to reflect that, even when he has attained 
the furthest limit of science, by advancing to those general 
principles which tend to place it on an elevation which others 
have already reached, he yet knows nothing of those won- 
drous operations which are the essential parts of every one 
of those complicated functions by which the life of the body 
is sustained. Why one cell should absorb, why another that 
seems exactly to resemble it should assimilate, why a third 
should secrete, why a fourth should prepare the productive 
germs, and why of two germs that seem exactly similar one 
should be developed into the meanest zoophyte and another 
into the complex fabric of man — are questions that physio- 
logy is not likely ever to answer." 1 While freely admitting 
that mysteries, which will probably baffle for ever human 
intellect, shroud many exquisitely beautiful processes, we see 
enough to constrain us to acknowledge a community of 

1 "Animal Physiology," p. 592. Bonn's Edition. 






CHAP. IV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 67 

structural arrangement, and to accept the doctrine of an 
all-pervading unity in life fabrics. 

Permeating these, are heat, light, electricity, magnetism, 
as correlated forces ; and the discovery that these different 
physical forces are mutually convertible, — that they can pass 
into one another, — or, in other words, that all force is 
the same force, — has placed in an entirely new light 
the unity of the globe. These forces are so simple, yet so 
powerful in their combinations, and are so universal in 
their diffusion, as they connect the inorganic and organic 
fabrics, that the doctrine of unity is rising with a mag- 
nificence which surpasses that even of endless worlds in har- 
mony, because they bear us on more directly to the mind 
of God. " And even if we cannot certainly identify force 
in all its forms with the direct energies of one omnipresent 
and all-pervading Will, it is at least in the highest degree 
unphilosophical to assume the contrary, to speak or to think 
as if the forces of nature were either independent of or even 
separate from the Creator's power." 1 

While admitting the correlation of forces, and, to a certain 
extent, that matter and force are inseparable, and while 
conceding that they have some intimate connection with the 
animal frame, we deny that they either sustain or subordi- 
nate mental force, or that they are "the all" of spiritual life. 
There are facts in mental history which a purely materialistic 
philosophy can never explain. One of these is a belief in 
the immortality of the soul. Another is that we are free 
agents, and are morally responsible for our actions ; and, 
intimately connected with these two, is the idea of a God 
almighty and omnipresent. Matter and force, however in- 
separable, cannot in their very nature produce such moral 



1 t( 



Reign of Law," by the Duke of Argyll, p. 122. 



68 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. IV. 

results as these. Vital force is essentially different from 
purely physical force. "It is one thing to admit that the 
vital and active energies of the living being are carried on 
by means of the forces of inorganic nature, and another thing 
to assert that any mere combination of these forces produces 
life." x Vital properties are superadded ; they are not per- 
manent. They are removed at death, and do not reappear. 
" The material properties belong to the matter, whether living 
or dead," says Dr. Beale, " but where are the vital properties 
in the dead material ? If physicists and chemists would only 
restore to life that which is dead, we should all believe in the 
doctrine they teach." ?> As we are are not discussing 
materialism, we follow its conclusions no further. We 
accept almost all that it teaches physiologically regarding 
the connections of the organic and inorganic, and the ex- 
position which it gives of the unity of our globe and of its 
life-forms; but we refuse to stop here, because there is a 
psychological or spiritual sphere in which the phenomena of 
matter and force are comparatively subordinate. Psychology 
has its own laws, and recognises a higher than a materialistic 
government. We rise from the lower unity to that which is 
wider, more lasting, and more sublime. In the intimate 
connection of the material with the intellectual and spiritual, 
— of the outer world with the " world within," — 'there is a 
unity of profounder interest than that which the physical 
universe alone exhibits, and that interest is intensified 
when we separate ourselves altogether from what is external, 
and expatiate with freedom in the domain of the invisible. 
As we ascend from the lowest instinct in animals 



1 See a very able article in the "British and Foreign Evangelical 
Review," July, 1872, by Professor J. R. Leebody. 

2 "Protoplasm; or Life, Matter, and Mind," p. 27, 



CHAP. IV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 69 

to reason and faith in man, we infer the legitimacy of still 
higher advances. We cannot stop with man as the terminat- 
ing link in the series of rational and accountable intelli- 
gences ; we cannot admit that his horizon is the limit of moral 
agency in the universe. Analogy, as our guide, gives to us 
an upward impulse which we cannot check without doing 
violence alike to the expositions of science and Scripture. 
What is dim to reason, Revelation makes distinct. The Bible 
guides us with steady step into the invisible, and it describes 
existences in it with as much historical defmiteness as when 
it places before us facts which lie within the easy appre- 
hension of the senses. " Thrones, dominions, principalities, 
and powers" are described as distinct representatives of 
spiritual intelligences, or celestial dignities, or the higher and 
highest essences of the universe ; order reigns there, unity 
prevails, as with one mind they obey God. A system of 
beings is revealed to us, vast, mysterious, yet harmonious, of 
which science can take no cognisance. The sun is not its 
centre, nor is Alcyone. The Pleiades do not reflect its 
splendour, nor can astronomers define its outline or estimate 
its glories. Its "thrones and dominions" rise inimitably 
until they approach the omnipotent Adonai, in whom and 
by whom and for whom they all consist. 

When astronomy, geology, chemistry, physiology, and other 
correlated sciences, are thus associated with what the Bible 
reveals in the unseen, we may safely rest in the light of that 
Word which reveals a glorious Being, who sees the end from 
the beginning, and who has in matchless wisdom first in- 
stituted the design to which every fact, and law, and event 
have been throughout conformed, and has given to all His 
works a unity consonant with that of His own attributes. 



CHAPTER V. 

Scripture Allusions coincident with Facts in Natural Science. 

"The Bible frequently makes allusions to the laws of nature, tbeir 
operations, and effects. But such allusions are often so wrapped in the 
folds of the peculiar and graceful drapery with which its language is 
occasionally clothed, that the meaning, though peeping out from its 
thin covering all the while, yet lies in some sense concealed until the 
lights and revelations of science are thrown upon it ; then it bursts out 
and strikes us with exquisite force and beauty." — Lieutenant Maury. 

THERE are allusions in the Bible, written centuries 
before astronomy had given a glimpse of the struc- 
ture of the universe, or geology had revealed the evolutions 
of the globe, or chemistry any of its constituent elements, 
which have only of late become intelligible and been recog- 
nised as perfectly exact. The coincidences of Bible 
statements with facts in natural science are so remarkable, 
and comparatively so numerous, that, when combined, they 
constitute a powerful argument for the reliableness of the 
whole book. Although the Bible does not teach science, it 
cannot be admitted to contradict its discoveries. The 
coincidence in some instances may seem to be remote or 
fanciful, but it is not on that account to be rejected. New 
discoveries may remove doubt and reveal long-hidden con- 
nections. 

We have already noticed (i) the long-mysterious questions 
in the Book of Job regarding the Pleiades, as enriched with 
unexpected lustre by the light of modern astronomy; and 
(2) the statements in the first chapter of Genesis regarding 
the distinctive facts in the natural history of " the grass/' 



CHAP. V.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 7 1 

" the herb," and " the fruit tree," as reaching that which 
botanists have made the basis of a truly scientific classifica- 
tion. Without further adverting to these allusions, we submit 
the following coincidences : — 

3. "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst 
of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which 
were under the firmament from the waters which were above 
the firmament." 1 This harmonises with what is known of 
the processes of evaporation to which the clouds are sub- 
ject as they float above us, — lakes of water in the azure 
vault. The firmament sustains the waters collected in its 
scattered clouds, and separates them from those resting on 
the surface of the earth. Take, in connection with this, what 
Solomon has written, — "All the rivers run into the sea; yet 
the sea is not full ; unto the place from whence the rivers 
come, thither they return again," 2 — and we may fairly press 
the question, Can any brief description more exactly set forth 
what has been ascertained as to the settled course of 
evaporation ? 

4. The passage in Ecclesiastes regarding the separation 
of "particles of water from the rivers and the sea, has an 
intensified significance when placed beside that other state- 
ment in Job regarding the weight of the atmosphere : " For 
he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the 
whole heaven ; to make the weight for the winds ; and he 
weigheth the waters by measure." 3 This reference to the 
"weight of the winds," dimly indicates that simple yet 
beautiful arrangement in the atmosphere which the experi- 
ments of natural philosophy have made known, and of which 
the barometer is a simple illustration. In the still atmos- 

1 Genesis i. 6, 7. 2 Ecclesiastes i. 7. 3 Job xxviii. 24, 25, 



72 BLENDING LIGHTS. |CHAP. V. 

phere there slumbers amazing power ; it has a weight, or 
substantiality, by which it upholds the clouds or the waters j 
and there is in its movements a force which is appalling when 
in tempest it rushes hither and thither, distributing desola- 
tion and death. In that silent process by winch the clouds 
are uplifited, there is put forth in a single year a weight or 
an amount of force that is almost incredible j it has been 
calculated by Arago as greater than the united strength of 
all the nations of the earth if put forth for 20,000 years. 
And can any history of rivers be more definite and succinct 
than that which is given in Ecclesiastes, when they are re- 
presented as hasting to the sea from the hills and the clouds, 
and as again returning to renew their course ? 

5. In his very interesting and instructive work, "The 
Physical Geography of the Sea,*" Lieutenant Maury has vividly 
described the currents in the atmosphere from the equator 
to the poles, and from the poles to the equator, — the one 
current ranging along a lower level, the other on a higher, 
and both exchanging their heights at the equator and the 
tropics, — like overlapping belts on higher and lower wheels 
in a factor}-, — while at the north and south poles they move 
from right to left and left to right respectively, around a 
circular mass of air, and are steady in their course as the 
Gulf Stream. 1 Unlike the trade winds, they know no rest. 
Their circuit is ceaseless ; and no one can examine the facts 
which have been ascertained and the principles which they 
represent, without delighting in the new meaning which lights 
up that Scripture sentence, so long unintelligible, i; The wind 
goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north : 
it whirleth about continually; and the wind retumeth again 
according to his circuits.'" - This is truly an accurate general- 

1 See Chapter on the Atmosphere. 2 Ecclesiastes i. 6, 



CHAP. V.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 73 

isation, and may well arrest the attention of those who 
believe that every line of the Bible has been long since 
exhausted of all its truth. 

6. There is an allusion, in the account which has been 
given of the triumph by the Israelites over the Amorites, the 
accuracy of which can be aright appreciated only by those 
who bear in mind how limited was the astronomical know- 
ledge of that period, and who set aside the physical diffi- 
culties of the narrative by which its light is partly hidden : — 
" Then spake Joshua to the Lord, in the day when the Lord 
delivered up the Amorites before, the children of Israel, and 
he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon 
Gib eon ; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And 
the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people 
had avenged themselves upon their enemies." 1 

It is of course well known now, that the sun and moon 
are so closely associated that the staying of the one implies 
the staying of the other ; but who, at that time, contemplated 
such a combination ? Not till after long ages was their con- 
nection revealed by astronomy. While in other books called 
" sacred," the strangest mistakes are made as to the sun and 
the moon, their exact relation is in this early narrative dis- 
tinctly acknowledged. The sun, it is true, is related to 
other planets in our system ; but in this incident the Earth 
is the stand-point, and therefore appropriately are the moon 
and the earth conjoined. The sun visibly arrested in the 
heavens, was all that was essential for the leader of the 
Israelites ; yet the collateral fact is announced, — the moon 
staying in the valley of Ajalon. This clear association of 
facts which were for ages secluded from observation and 
experience, gives presumptive evidence for the Divine in- 

1 Joshua x. 12, 13, 



74 BLENDING LIGHTS. [chap. v. 

spiration of the Scriptures. It is common to urge on our 
attention the physical difficulties which the narrative repre- 
sents ; but is there no obstacle to the ridicule with which 
scepticism has treated this record, in the insight which this 
combination shows? Even admitting that the writer did 
not quite comprehend the truth which he set forth, or that 
his imagination, not his intellect, was the origin and medium 
of its expression, how account for the fulness and the exact- 
ness of the statement itself? And is it not in thorough 
accordance with other allusions to what lay beyond the reach 
of the age in which he lived ? As to the miracle itself, there 
are many difficulties, it must be acknowledged, when an ex- 
haustive exposition is attempted. In its full acceptation, it 
involves the temporary arrestment of great physical laws ; 
and, therefore, explanations have been offered to the effect 
that the standing still was not real, but apparent, through a 
continuance of light protracted by some of the ordinary 
processes of refraction. Literally and absolutely, there could 
be no arrestment, because the sun does not travel. Pro- 
longation of light was all that was necessary to complete the 
victory. The tempest ^of hail, and probably of meteoric 
stones, which is described, favours the supposition of the 
great astronomer, Kepler ■ " They will not understand," he 
says, " that the only thing which Joshua prayed for was that 
the mountains might not intercept the sun from him. Be- 
sides, it had been very unreasonable at that time to think of 
astronomy, or of the errors of sight ; for if any one had told 
him that the sun could not really move in the valley of 
Ajalon, but only in relation to sense, would not Joshua have 
answered that his one desire was that the day might be pro- 
longed, so it were by any means whatever?'' 

Dean Stanley, in his well-known and deservedly-valued 
work, "Lectures on the Jewish Church," while taking a 



CHAP. V.] BLEXDIXG LIGHTS. 75 

similar view, is apparently inclined to admit a poetical 
colouring beyond what the narrative warrants. "These 
words in the book of Joshua/' he says, "were doubtless in- 
tended to express that, in some manner, in answer to 
Joshua's earnest prayer, the day was prolonged till the vic- 
tory was achieved. How, or in what way, we are not told : 
and if we take the words in the popular and poetical sense 
in which, from their style, it is clear that they are used, there 
is no occasion for inquiry. That some such general sense is 
what was understood in the ancient Jewish Church itself, is 
evident from the slight emphasis laid upon the incident by 
Josephus, and the Samaritan book of Joshua ; and from the 
absence of any subsequent allusion to it (unless, indeed, in a 
similar poetic strain) in the Old or New Testament." He 
adverts to Habakkuk, iii. n, and makes the following apt 
quotations from Josephus, in a note," — " He then heard 
that God was helping him, by the signs of thunder, lightning, 
and unusual hailstones; and that the day was increased 
lest the night should check the zeal of the Hebrews. 
That the length of the day did then increase, and was longer 
than usual, is told in the books laid up in the temple." * The 
Samaritan book of Joshua says that " the day was prolonged 
at his prayer," and the opinion of Dr. Chalmers is to the same 
effect, but is stated with a fuller and firmer reference to the 
literal aspect of the narrative. " The shower of hailstones 
was miraculous; and, in regard to the much-controverted 
miracle of the sun and moon standing still, I have no doubt 
it was so to the effect of the sun-dial being stationary, which 
leaves room for the speculation that it may have been by 
atmospherical refraction, or in other ways. I am not so stag- 
gered by this narrative as to feel dependent on the usual 

1 "Lectures on the Jewish Church," pages 245, 246, 



76 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. V. 

explanations. I accept of it in the popular and effective 
sense, having no doubt that to all intents and purposes of 
that day's history, the sun and moon did stand still, the one 
resting over Gibeon, the other in the valley of Ajalon." 1 
Even assuming that the storm was in full accord with the 
laws of nature, there is in the hail, in the meteoric stones, in 
the gloom, in the refraction of the light (probable, at least), 
and in the appearance of the moon, taken along with the 
contest in the elements, and with the prayer of Joshua, 
such a combination of facts as places the whole narrative for 
moral purposes under the direct guidance of the Great 
Governor of the universe. In short, there is in the narrative 
nothing to weaken the force of the evidence for the truth of 
Scripture which has been presented to us in the unexpected 
union of sun and moon in Joshua's petition, when ordinarily 
the sun alone was necessary for the miracle. In one of a 
very able course of lectures on Christianity and Scepticism, 
the Rev. Dr. Tyler, while he has himself " no difficulty in 
accepting " what is stated as simple matter of fact, and " true 
in the fullest and most literal sense, when interpreted accord- 
ing to the common laws of language," offers the following 
summary of Keil's suggestions on the passage : " And the 
Bible always describes natural phenomena as they appear, 
and in the language of the people, not according to the 
doctrine or the language of physical science. But this pas- 
sage is expressly cited from a book of poems, the book of 
Joshua. The language also is metrical, and admits of being 
arranged in the form of verses. It has the parallelism and 
the other characteristic marks of Hebrew poetry ; and, 
irrespective of their theological opinions, critics now generally 
agree to read it as a poetical quotation. It must, therefore, 

1 "Daily Scripture Readings," vol, I., page 395, 



CHAP. V.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 77 

be interpreted not as prose, but as poetry ; not as a part of 
the narrative by the sacred historian, but as a fragment from 
some Hebrew bard, cited by way of embellishment. And 
so interpreted, it means, perhaps, no more than this : So long 
did the day seem to those who were engaged in the conflict, 
and so complete was the destruction of the enemies of Israel, 
that, in the strong language of a bold and contemporary poet, 
it might be said the sun and moon stood still in the heavens, 
and the day was prolonged far beyond its usual duration, till 
the confederate host was utterly extinguished. So, in the song 
of Deborah, it is said that * the stars in their courses fought 
against Sisera,' upon which no one would think of putting 
any other than a poetical interpretation. And when Isaiah 
prayed to the Lord in the name of his people, 'Oh! that Thou 
wouldest rend the heavens and come down, that the moun- 
tains might flow down at thy presence !' or when David sings, 
1 In my distress I called upon the Lord, ... he heard my 
voice out of his temple, ... he bowed the heavens 
also and came down, ... he sent from above, and 
took me ; he drew me out of many waters ;' — who is there 
who ever thinks of understanding these words literally, as 
denoting an actual rending the heavens, or a desire that God 
would actually descend from heaven and stretch out his 
hand to draw David out of the waters ? " 

But Keil, in his Commentary, is even more explicit and 
decided than the summary by Dr. Tyler at first sight indi- 
cates. " We do not hesitate," he says, " to believe in such 
a miracle in its fullest extent, whenever this is the meaning 
obtained from a literal interpretation of the words, or when 
it can be exegetically proved to be the only admissible and 
necessary one. For even though, in the whole of the world's 
history, no other such miracle may ever have occurred, yet 
in the fact that it only happened once, there is just as little 



78 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. V. 

to disturb our faith as are objections founded upon the 
invariable order with which the heavenly bodies revolve 
according to the eternal laws implanted in them by the Author 
of Nature. These laws, in our opinion, are nothing more 
than terms by which men are accustomed to designate certain 
manifestations of the creative power of God, the nature of 
which no mortal has explored ; and we can therefore believe 
that the Creator, in his omnipotence, would depart from the 
so-called laws of nature, whenever in his inscrutable wisdom 
he saw that it was necessary for the salvation of men, for 
whose redemption he did not even spare his own son." He 
proceeds to state that the physical difficulties in the way of 
accepting this narrative, and the fact that no account of it is 
met with in the annals of other nations, would not in the 
least excite any doubts in his mind of its historical veracity : yet 
he has come to the conclusion which we have already set forth. 
" If we had before us simple prose, or the words of the his- 
torian himself, we should without the least hesitation admit 
that the day was miraculously lengthened in consequence of 
a delay in the course and setting of the sun. But verses 13 
and 14 contain merely an amplification or poetical expansion 
of the words really uttered by Joshua in the heat of the con- 
flict : • Sun, wait till the people have avenged 

themselves upon their enemies ;' and we should therefore 
entirely overlook the essential nature of poetry if we adhered 
closely to the words of the poet, and so understood them to 
mean that the day was miraculously prolonged because the 
sun stood still." x 

Even if Keil's view be adopted as the most satisfactory, 
we hold that the narrative or quotation is so adjusted in its 
terms as to be placed for our guidance in an unerring Bible \ 

1 "Keil's Commentary on Joshua," p, 266. 



CHAP. V.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 79 

and the connection of the sun and the moon is so divested 
of all that is incompatible with fact, that what is recorded 
harmonises exactly with the astronomical conditions. For 
our own part, we prefer the inference that the day was pro- 
longed by the unusual state of the atmosphere and by the 
refraction of the light, or by some other such cause, producing 
stationariness for a time in the sun-dial. Be the explanatory 
facts what they may, the result was miraculous, and in answer 
to Joshua's prayer. 

There are other incidental allusions which, while they seem 
to be poetical, and fit only to be explained by its imagery, 
or laid aside as of practical value chiefly in giving pleasure, 
may yet be discovered to be substantially matter of fact, and 
to be connected, as by romance, with some of the most won- 
derful operations of nature. What has already happened in 
some instances, may be applicable in many. It will be 
admitted that there is, possibly, much more in many passages 
than figurative language, and that, without any undue stretch 
of the ordinary laws of criticism, they may yet shed light on 
some law or fact in science. Difficulties which Christian 
apologists have endeavoured to remove under the allegation 
that the language is poetical, have already evanished in the 
light of ascertained results. 

7. The Scriptures, for example, were ridiculed by infidels 
because they taught that the sun had a path of its own in 
the heavens. " In them hath he set a tabernacle for the 
sun ; which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, 
and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going 
forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the 
ends of it : and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof." Y 
Appearances disproved this assertion, and early astronomy 

1 Psalm xix. 4,5,6, 



80 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. V. 

gave it a direct negative, but it is now known to be literally 
true. The sun of our system is on his long journey around 
his own far-off centre, and we move in dependence on his 
light. The ridicule has ceased, and the weapons which the 
sceptic drew from the nineteenth Psalm have fallen from his 
hand, only to be uplifted by the believer, and wielded not 
merely in unexpected defence, but in vigorous assault. 

8. The earth, long acknowledged by many to be flat and 
square, or circular, and often made the subject of absurd ex- 
positions, was very accurately and very beautifully described 
by Job, in that olden record, " He stretcheth out the north 
over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. 
He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds ; and the cloud 
is not rent under them." 1 Sir Isaac Newton could not have 
more succinctly stated the position of the earth, nor could 
any of our meteorologists give fitter outline of our cloud sys- 
tem than this and similar descriptions embody. Again, 
taken in connection with that vivid delineation of the close 
of the present dispensation by St. Peter, to which reference 
has been already made, the following statement by Job indi- 
cates the condition of the earth's centre. Whether or not 
he perceived its force, it certainly harmonises with the most 
recent findings of science : "As for the earth, out of it 
cometh bread ; and under it is turned up as it were fire." 2 
Further, the agencies affecting the whole surface of the earth 
and giving character to its scenery, while explaining its his- 
tory, are vividly set forth by Job, when he says : "And 
surely the mountain falling cometh to nought (or fadeth), 
and the rock is removed out of his place. The waters wear 
the stones ; thou washest away the things which grow out of 
the dust of the earth." 3 The very processes which modern 

1 Job xxvi. 7,8. 2 Jobxxviii. 5. 3 Job xiv. 18, 19. 



chap, v.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 8l 

geologists are engaged in keenly discussing, as accounting 
for the variety of our Scottish scenery, are specified in the 
language of the patriarch. Comprehensively, these delinea- 
tions in Scripture may possibly represent universal geologic 
movements. 

9. But still further, while the changes proceeding on the 
land-surface, in relation to its mountains, valleys, and rivers, 
are incidentally noticed in such general terms as any 
geologist might employ, the character of the great ocean 
itself is found to be in strict conformity to the command of 
God, that "the water bring forth abundantly the moving 
creature that hath life." But this was not done until 
a separation had been made between the sea and land, as 
on the third day, and that river-system had been established 
which is related to the saltness of the sea, the maintenance 
of much of its life, and the processes of evaporation neces- 
sary both for sea and land. The theories as to the origin of 
the sea's saltness we need not here discuss ; it is enough that 
the constitution which the Creator has given to the ocean fits 
it for abundant life. Historically, the record in Genesis is 
true. The wisdom and goodness of the Great Ruler are 
visible in every process, and the prolific ocean now quivers 
with life. The abundance of the living is one of the greatest 
"wonders of the deep,"' which the microscope has revealed 
in its own almost boundless universe. 

10. There are various other passages whose meaning has 
of late become more distinct in the light of science, — as, for 
example, Leviticus xvii. n, which recent physiological 
inquiries have illustrated ; and also, Job xiv. 7-9, and Job 
xxviii. 1-6, in which we have what have been regarded as 
the oldest and most instructive notices of Natural History 
in existence ; but it is scarcely necessary to press them into 
this general argument. 



82 BLENDING LIGHTS. [chap. V. 

Although these allusions in the Word of God, as coinciding 
with facts in His Works, may not be regarded by many 
as conveying any very decided evidence of a positive kind 
for the harmony of both ; yet it will be admitted they are of 
special subsidiary value when contrasted with those unin- 
spired histories of the world which have been given forth in 
succeeding ages, and in different lands, not one of whose 
general outlines can, for an instant, bear the application of 
those crucial tests which even the allusions of Scripture not 
only sustain but welcome, as often, if not always, more fully 
eliciting their meaning. 

Let it be understood, that it is only on this ground we 
have submitted these considerations for acceptance ; and 
that we do not regard them as constituting more than 
incidental -or subordinate proof. While we freely acknow- 
ledge that the Scriptures represent facts in those aspects 
which are most familiar to ordinary observation, and not in 
their more recondite or exactly scientific relations, we may 
legitimately reason that these references or allusions are 
indicative of the accuracy and value of the Bible, when we 
find -it covering at once the results of common experience 
and the more recent discoveries of science. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Geologic Fulness of Time when Man appeared. 

"It is surely no incredible thing, that He who, in the dispensation of 
the human period, spake by type and symbol, and who, when He 
walked the earth in the flesh, taught in parable and allegory, should 
have also spoken in the Geologic ages by prophetic figures, embodied 
in the form and structure of animals." — Hugh Miller. 

IN the distant past, not a trace of man's presence has 
been found. He is " of yesterday." While the stone 
volume has preserved for us the slight impressions of the An- 
nelid and the foot-trail of perished Molluscs in the soft mud 
over which they crawled ; while it has restored to us in per- 
fect shape the delicately-constructed many-lensed eye of 
the Trilobite, and has kept exact record of the death struggles 
of fishes on the sands of olden seas; while it has delineated, 
on carboniferous columns, fern-leaves exquisitely delicate in 
structure as the finest species of modern times ; and while 
the rain-drops of long bygone ages have left imprints which 
reveal to us the course which even the wind followed; not a 
trace of man is visible. Only at the close does he appear ; 
science finds him where the Scriptures placed him, and sees 
in him the crown which continuous type had long fore- 
shadowed. 

Not only are there advances in animal structure which are 
prophetic of man's higher organisation, but, through what at 
one time seemed utterly confused and meaningless, there is 
abundant evidence of definite purpose in storing the earth with 
those plants and animals which are best fitted to meet man's 
necessities. He was not introduced to a barren region or 



84 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. VI. 

an empty home. There clearly appears, about the time of his 
taking his place on the earth, such a series of adjustments 
for his use and comfort, as cannot be even plausibly con- 
nected with the chance struggles of natural selection. The 
plants and animals which are discoverable only in compara- 
tively recent periods, are so numerous and so fully suited 
to the wants of man, that we cannot find an explanation of 
this harmony of production apart from Purpose in relation 
to him. Plants, fishes, quadrupeds, and even the delicate 
distribution of colours, furnish evidence which is by far 
too commonly overlooked. We can do little more than 
allude to some of the leading facts which have been brought 
within the easy reach of every inquirer. Agassiz and Hugh 
Miller have given special prominence to the proof of a 
gradual preparation of the earth for man. 

i. As to Plants. — Not until we enter on the Tertiary 
period do we find flowers, amid which man might have pro- 
fitably laboured as a dresser of gardens, a tiller of fields, or 
a keeper of flocks and herds. Not, indeed, until late in this 
period, is there any appearance of several orders and families 
of plants which are useful to man, and which contribute 
largely to his pleasure. Among these orders we may men- 
tion that of the Rosacea, to which gardeners invariably look 
with unfailing interest. It includes the apple, the pear, the 
cherry, the plum, the peach, the apricot, the nectarine, the 
raspberry, the strawberry; nor ought we to omit reference to 
those delight-giving and useful flowers, roses and potentillas, 
the history of which commenced with that of Man. 1 

It is no less remarkable that the true grasses, — a still 
more important order, — including the grain-giving plants, 
oats, barley, wheat, and others, which sustain "at least two- 

1 See "Testimony of the Rocks," p. 48. 



CHAP. vi. J BLENDING LIGHTS. 85 

thirds of the human species/' and which also, " in their 
humble varieties, form the staple food of the grazing animals," 
do not appear until close on the human period. There are 
other plants, also, which add to man's comfort or gratify his 
senses, which are not found in the fossil state, — lavender, 
mint, thyme, hyssop, basil, rosemary, marjoram. They 
have apparently been introduced to prepare for man their 
varied fragrance and virtues. 

2. As to Fishes. — And not until this recent period did the 
sea become the home oi fishes that could prove nutritious or 
tasteful to man. A review of the various changes which 
have appeared at different periods in the history of fishes, 
leads to this inference. Professor Owen has distinctly 
stated " that those species, such as the nutritious cod, the 
savoury herring, the rich-flavoured salmon, and the succulent 
turbot," displaced immediately before man's advent those 
species which were coarse and unsuitable food ; but then 
and subsequently they became very abundant. 

3. As to Quadrupeds. — While we admit the weakness of 
merely negative statements in establishing any fact, there is 
yet so much that is forcible in the absence from the fossil 
state of so many of those life-forms which now surround man, 
that we are justifiable in explicitly referring to it as probable 
evidence. No geologist denies that the gigantic forms of 
Mammalian life, by which the Miocene and Pliocene period 
were distinguished, ceased near the time of man's appear- 
ance ; and that only a few of those larger animals remained 
which were not inconsistent with his safety and comfort, 
Nor will any hesitate to admit that, as new plants then ap- 
peared, so also quadrupeds not known before took the 
place of those which had passed away. Among them the 
sheep is conspicuous, not only for its own qualities, but for 
the extent to which it has ever ministered to the various 



S6 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. VI. 

wants of man. Hugh Miller, with evident delight, describes 
the peculiar adaptation of this favourite animal to the 
necessities of a large proportion of the human race, as " that 
soft and harmless creature that clothes civilised man every- 
where in the colder latitudes with its fleece, — that feeds him 
with its flesh, — that gives its bowels to be spun into the 
catgut with which he refits his musical instruments, — whose 
horns he has learned to fashion into a thousand useful 
trinkets, — and whose skin, converted into parchment, served 
to convey to later times the thinking of the first full blow of 
the human intellect across the dreary gulf of the Middle 
Ages/'* "While some refuse to acknowledge the importance of 
the contemporaneous connection with man of such plants 
and animals as we have specified, no theistic evolutionist of 
note for attainments in science hesitates to admit that they 
were at least indirectly preparatory to man's advent. 

4. As to Colour. — There is distinct evidence of prepara- 
tion for man in the distribution and adjustments of colour, 
which alone must interest every student of the Bible and the 
natural sciences. The very appearance of all things has 
been adapted to the human constitution. This important 
fact has been commonly overlooked. The notion had long 
prevailed that there was no law in the distribution of 
colours j but this error has been corrected. The subject 
has been elaborately discussed by Dr. Dickie and Principal 
M'Cosh, who have shown that there is, in flowers, a per- 
manent relation between form and colour, and an unfailing 
harmony in the distribution of colours in the same plant. 

True, it cannot yet be demonstrated that these relations 
rest on a scientific basis, so as to connect the adjustments in 
colours with aesthetic tendencies or laws in the human 
mind ; yet the evidence warrants the conclusion that there 
has been a gradual evolution of forms and colours until 



CHAP. VI. j BLENDING LIGHTS. 87 

those results have been educed most pleasing to the eye, and 
of which there is no manifestation until about the time when 
man was created. 

Assuming that in successive geologic periods plants have 
been formed according to the same law, — an assumption 
fairly warranted by facts, — Dr. Dickie has inferred that the 
association of colours will be similar, — that is, they will 
harmonise with the forms of the plants. Accordingly, the 
prevailing colours in any geologic period may be determined 
by the prevailing forms of its vegetable life. In the earlier 
geological periods, — when ferns were the chief forms, — green, 
purple, and russet gave the landscape a sombre character ; 
and in a subsequent stage, when cone-bearing plants rose 
everywhere, the general dulness was but little lessened. 
Not until the beginning of the chalk formation, is there a 
very evident advance towards existing forms and colours. 
Not, indeed, until the latest period, — that nearest to man, — 
do we find the flowers which most enhance our pleasures 
invested with their fascinating hues, and so arranged as to 
exhibit those principles of science which Schools of Art are 
struggling to represent. "In a skilful piece of art, the more 
prominent figures are made to rise out of colours which 
attract no notice. It is the same in the beautiful canvas 
which is spread out before us in earth and sky. The ground- 
colours of nature, if not all neutral, are at least all soft and 
retiring. How grateful should we be that the sky is not usually 
dressed in red; that the clouds are not painted crimson; that 
the carpet of grass on which we tread is not yellow, and the 
trees are not decked with orange leaves ! The soil, in most 
places is a sort of brown ; the mature trunks of trees com- 
monly take some kind of neutral hue ; the true colour of the 
sky is a soft blue, except when covered with grey clouds ; 
and the foliage of vegetation is a refreshing green. It is out 



88 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. VI. 

from the midst of these that the more regular and elegant 
forms, and the gayer colours of nature, come forth to arrest 
the attention, to excite and dazzle us, not only by their own 
splendour, but by comparison and contrast." 1 

Pains must be taken by art students to determine what 
colours should be in juxtaposition, and what kept at a 
distance from each other. In the manufacture of our finest 
fabrics, and in staining glass for windows, no one neglects 
those rules which are prescribed by science and sanctioned 
by experience; but it is only recently in the history of 
our civilisation that we have discovered those principles 
according to which colours in nature have been associated 
from the beginning. The colours suit us. They meet our 
taste ; they delighted us in childhood and they please us in 
our advancing years. Not a flower in the field or the forest, 
not a coloured shell in sea or river, that fails to illustrate or 
exemplify permanent principles. Even the commonest of 
all our early favourites shows the beautiful distribution of 
colours with as much exactness as the cell of the honey-bee 
or the whorl of the shell its mechanical lines. 

How is it that the plants, the land animals, and the fishes, 
most conducive to man's wellbeing, only first exist when he 
comes in view ? how is it that the minerals, the metals, the 
coals, the salt, all the things he needs, are stored within 
his reach ? how is it that not until near the human period, 
the colours in nature are so harmonised alike in their gayer 
and their most subdued aspects, as most to give him de- 
light ? and how has man become so constituted as to be in 
such delicate relation to all around him ? Surely there is 
benevolent purpose in all this. 

In his well-known work on "The Origin of Species," Mr. 

1 " Typical Forms and Special Ends," pp, 152,153. 



CHAP. VI.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 89 

Darwin asks us to believe that these beautiful adaptations 
are not in the least due to design, but to the slow opera- 
tions and decisions of natural selection, if indeed there can 
be decision without design. The very colours which man 
most admires are, according to this school of theorists, in no 
way representative of purpose. That the sky is blue and 
not scarlet, that the leaves of the landscape are not yellow 
and the soil not crimson, are the chance evolutions of this 
mysterious something, which has neither intelligence nor be- 
ginning of days. The mere suggestion that all this wealth 
of beauty in varied colours, and proportion in form, and 
gracefulness of movement, and the tint of the atmosphere, are 
in any respect an end and not accidental, Mr. Darwin resent- 
fully rejects. They are with him no part of a plan, nor are 
they intended to please. It is really difficult to believe in 
the possibility of such convictions as are seriously asserted. 
" Some naturalists," he says, " believe that very many struc- 
tures have been created for beauty in the eyes of men, or for 
mere variety. This doctrine, if true, would be absolutely fatal 
to my theory." 1 It comes to this, that the theory which 
we are asked to accept instead of that record in the first 
chapter of Genesis, is one which gives beauty without an end, 
laws without an author, works without a maker, and co- 
ordination without design. 2 He excludes from creation the 
idea of intended beauty. Man's history began, he knows 
not how, millions of millions of years ago, in that first germ 
of life out of which have been developed all plants and 
animals, by those processes, complicated and undefinable, 
which transpired, until, at last, he rose on the theatre of life, 
its crown and glory, " fearfully made " in body and still more 
mysteriously framed in spirit. To these facts we shall more 
fully direct attention at a subsequent stage. 

1 " Origin of Species," p. 219. 2 See Phillips's " Life on Earth," p. 63. 



90 BLENDING LIGHTS, [CHAP. VI. 

With what majestic comprehensiveness and precision must 
Natural Selection have guided all processes and struggles, 
when the lowest lichen or simplest spore has risen to be the 
apple tree, the peach, the plum, the nectarine, the wheat, 
the thyme, and the other grains and herbs necessary for 
man just before he ca,me; with what precision have the 
lowest worms risen to be the fishes, the birds, and the 
quadrupeds he most needed ; and with what astonishing 
parallel exactness have the chemical processes kept pace with 
all other movements in earth, and sea, and sky, when, in the 
use of the soil, in the structure of plants, in their form, in 
their foliage, in their flowers, there issued at last the distri- 
bution of those very forms and colours which not only most 
conduce to man's comfort, but most gratify his taste ! In 
separate spheres and without connection, — in the inorganic 
masses of the globe, — in plant and animal life, — in the 
atmosphere and in the heavens, — through long, fitful, imper- 
fect, and frequently unfinished processes, — natural selection 
has thus been at work, and without a purpose, or design, or 
end in any shape, has given to the world its present wondrous 
structure, and to all life its present subtle characters. Does 
this whole theory not draw excessively on our imagination, 
and raise difficulties incomparably greater than all those which 
Rationalism has conjured up against the miracles of the 
Bible? 



CHAPTER VII. 

The Bible Account of Man's Origin — The Opinion that he 
was Miraculously Bom — The Theory that he was 
Naturally Developed. 

" What man holds of matter, does not make up his personality. Man 
is not an organism, he is an intelligence served by organs ; they are 
his, — not he." — Sir William Hamilton. 

HAVING examined the geological evidence, showing 
the preparation of the earth for the human race, let 
us next inquire into 

I. — Man's Origin. 

Whence is man? Was he miraculously born of some 
creature nearly human, as some Christian apologists are dis- 
posed to believe ? Was he evolved from some germ of life 
originated untold ages ago, as some naturalists have en- 
deavoured to demonstrate ? or was he miraculously made of 
the dust of the earth, as the Scriptures have distinctly 
affirmed. While we have been taught to accept what the 
Scriptures have declared on this subject, we are not at liberty 
to disregard those difficulties which have weighed with others, 
nor the solutions which have satisfied them. Let us examine 
those accounts of man's origin which are at present most 
engaging attention. 

i. The Bible Account. — It has, at least, the merit of ex- 
plicitness, and is thoroughly intelligible. " And God said, 
Let us make man in our image, after our likeness ; and let 
them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the 
fowl of the air, and over all the cattle, and over every 
creeping thing that creepeth on the earth. So God created 



92 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. VII. 

man in his own image : in the image of God created he him ; 
male and female created he them." 1 "And the Lord God 
formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his 
nostrils the breath of life ; and man became a living soul." 2 
If these passages teach any truth with greater emphasis than 
another, it is that, by the creative act of God, man was made 
perfect in relation to bodily vigour and intellectual capacity. 
Of the mode by which there arose out of dust a body 
fearfully and wonderfully made, nothing is told us \ but the 
fact is distinctly stated. A higher being had appeared, con- 
nected with the earth and largely dependent on it, and yet 
not originated by it. The peculiarities of the record are 
specially noteworthy. 

First, it is said, "Let us ?nake man" To no other creative 
act is there the same introduction. Man's appearance is 
thus separated from all that had gone before. It is made 
the occasion of a fuller revelation of truth ; for a glimpse is 
given of the great doctrine of more than one person in the 
Godhead. The doctrine of the Trinity begins thus early to 
be unfolded. 

The second peculiarity is in the statement, " Let us make 
man in our image, after [or according to] our likeness." In- 
genious and subtle distinctions have been frequently drawn 
between the descriptive terms, " in our image " and " after 
our likeness"; but we prefer the opinion of the older theolo- 
gians, who regard both as combined to give intensity to the 
same thought. " Image and likeness," says Dr. Hodge, "means 
an image which is like." God gave to the body a perfect 
organisation, breathed natural life into it, and imparted to 
"man" his " own image." This combination of the terms 
" image " and " likeness," seems intended to express man's 

1 Genesis i. 26, 27. 2 Genesis ii. 7. 



CHAP. VII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 93 

personality, and his resemblance to the infinite and uncreated 
in every way possible with a being finite and created. * 
Man, accordingly, though at an immeasurable distance from 
the Infinite I Am, has knowledge, wisdom, power, and 
therefore dominion over all that has been placed within the 
sphere of his influence. As he was intellectual and could 
know, as he was moral and could love, he had a sway which 
no other creature on earth can wield. With these forces 
combined, he came forth controlling all the resources of 
nature which were placed within his reach ; and in possess- 
ing this spirit, he could be rightfully regarded as the lord 
of this lower world and as the representative of Deity. In 
further exposition of his character, it is said, " God made 
man upright." Intellectually and morally he was perfect, his 
powers were rightly balanced, his energies were consistently 
directed, and holiness made lustrous all his history. The 
New Testament sheds fuller light on the inner aspects of his 
character now, through two parallel statements by the apostle, 
descriptive of the believer, as having " put on the new man, 
which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that 
created him," 2 and " which after God is created in right- 
eousness and true holiness." :i 

Man thus connects two worlds, and therein lies his 
incomparable pre-eminence; yet his true superiority arises 
not from his relations to the living creatures that are around 
and beneath him, but from his upward connection and his 
being " in the image " of God the Creator. 

The third peculiarity, is the reference to woman as made 
also with the same nature and endowments. In the other 



1 For a full discussion of this subject, see "Creation and the Fall, 
by the Rev. D. MacDonald, Excursus I. ; "Man, the Image of God, 
and "Systematic Theology,"7by Dr. Hodge, vol. II., pp. 96, 102. 
2 Colossians iii. 10. 3 Ephesians iv. 24. 



94 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. VII. 

references to new races in the first narrative, there is no 
allusion to the female. And not only is Eve spoken of by 
Adam as " bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh," but she 
is included in the description as being formed in the image of 
God. The statement is too emphatic to admit of its being 
explained away, " So God created man in his own image, in 
the image of God created he him : male and female created 
he them.'' Their equality is here clearly set forth in their 
origin, in their dependence on God, in their responsibility 
to Him, and in their possession of spiritual privileges. No 
marvel that Fichte, the celebrated German, marking these 
realities, and bounding over the barriers of an infidel 
philosophy, wrote with fervour, — " Who then educated the 
first human pair ? A Spirit bestowed its care upon them, 
as is laid down in an ancient and venerable record, which, 
taken altogether, contains the profoundest and the loftiest 
wisdom, and presents those results to which all philosophy 
must yet return/"' 

Assuredly, the more closely this singular narrative is 
examined, the more deeply impressive does it become, as 
other and seemingly-distant truths are discovered to be 
inwrought with it. The mode of man's introduction is 
perfectly comformable to his lofty personality, as that of the 
lower animals is to their impersonality. And as man's 
history, in this dispensation, begins with the constitution of 
his body, with the in-breathing of life, and the imparting of 
God's image, so at the commencement of his heavenly 
history there will again, we are told, be a fashioning of his 
body " like unto Christ's glorious body, according to the 
working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto 
Himself.''' And the sanctified spirit entering that body shall 
bear His image : " We shall be like Him, for we shall see 
Him as He is." The first stage in man's earthly course is 



CHAP. VII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 95 

thus typical of that on which he shall enter at the resurrec- 
tion. Connections that are illimitable, and of surpassing 
interest, here open to our view ; but to trace them further is 
inconsistent with the object of our present exposition. 

2. The opinion that man was miraculously born, next 
claims our consideration, as having been, of late, pressed on 
the attention of the Christian public by some whose sincere 
acceptance of the Bible as the Word of God cannot be 
questioned. They suppose that our first parents were not 
formed at once out of the dust of the ground, but that, in 
some mysterious way, they were "born" as human of some of 
the lower animals. The translator of Lange's Commentary 
of Genesis seems to entertain this opinion. In a foot-note, 
p. 211, he says — " But this does not exclude the idea that 
the human physical was connected with the previous nature, 
or natures, and was brought out of them. That is, it was 
made from the earth, in the widest signification of the term." 
And after alluding to the difficulties connected with the 
idea of an outward image or organisation, he asks, " What 
difficulty or danger, then, in giving to the phrase t from the 
earth ' the widest sense consistent with the idea of man's 
having an earthly as well as a heavenly origin ? " As the 
Duke of Argyll in his admirable work, the Reign of Law, 
has given prominence to this interpretation, it is necessary 
to consider its bearing on the general discussion as to the 
Bible record. As the reasoning of M. Guizot has formed a 
serious obstacle in the way of this opinion, it is desirable to 
reproduce it here. In answer to the question, By what 
means and by what power has the human race commenced 
on Earth? he says, — "There can be but two explanations 
of man's origin : either he has been produced by the proper 
and innate labour of the natural forces of matter ; or he is 
the work of a supernatural power — external to, and superior 



96 BLENDING LIGHTS. [chap. VII. 

to, matter. His appearance here below requires one of two 
causes, — spontaneous generation or creation." He argues 
that, as the earth could not of itself originate man and 
woman, — the human pair entirely formed and full-grown, — 
the only other supposition, apart from supernatural in- 
fluence, is, that they were originated by spontaneous gene- 
ration. It is only under such a condition that man could 
have lived or perpetuated himself, and have founded the 
human race " Let us figure to ourselves," he says, " the 
first-born man in a state of early infancy, living, but inert, 
unintelligent, helpless, incapable of supplying his own wants, 
trembling and moaning, with no mother to hear or nourish 
him." Rejecting this supposition, he insists that the other 
origin of the human race alone is admissible, and that man's 
first appearance in this lower world can be explained only 
by the supernatural fact of creation. 1 

The Duke of Argyll pronounces this "a common, but 
not a very safe argument ; " and adds, " To accept the 
primeval narrative of the Jewish Scriptures as coming from 
authority, and as bringing before us the personal agency of 
the Creator, but without purporting to reveal the method of 
this work — this is one thing. To argue that no other origin 
for the first parents of the human race is conceivable than 
that they were moulded perfect, without the instrumentality 
of means — this is quite another thing. The various hypotheses 
of development, of which Darwin's theory is only a new and 
special version, whether they are probable or not, are at 
least advanced as affording a possible escape from the 

1 ' ' Evidemment, l'autre origine du genre humain est seul admissible, 
seul possible. Le fait surnaturel de la creation explique seul la premiere 
apparition de l'homme ice-bas." — L'Eglise et la Societe Chretienne en 
1861. A Translation of M. Guizot's work has been published by R. 
Bentley, London. 



CHAP. VII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 97 

puzzle which M. Guizot puts. These hypotheses are indeed 
destitute of proof; and in the form which they have yet 
assumed, it may justly be said that they involve such 
violations of, or departures from, all that we know of the 
existing order of things, as to deprive them of all scientific 
basis. But the close and mysterious relations between the 
mere animal frame of man, and that, of the lower animals, 
does render the idea of a common relationship by descent 
at least conceivable. Indeed, in proportion as it seems to 
.approach nearer to processes of which we have some know- 
ledge, it is, in degree, more conceivable than creation with- 
out any process, — of which we have no knowledge, and can 
have no conception." 1 

In what respect M. Guizot's argument is unsafe, does not 
readily appear. He directly connects the creation of man with 
the supernatural in that form which the Bible seems literally 
to describe, and by which the argument is disentangled from 
those difficulties which a helpless infancy, and one of the 
lower animals as mother, present. The anxiety of his Grace 
to secure a safe position between those who accept the Bible 
statement as it stands, and those who follow Darwin's theory, 
leads him to enunciate principles, the legitimate application 
of which is depreciatory of the historical directness of the 
Scripture narrative. In his attempt to bring the Super- 
natural — that is to say, the Superhuman and the Super- 
material — " nearer us " than M. Guizot's argument does, or 
rather to find a place for the formation of man, with as few 
physiological difficulties as possible, his Grace, as it appears to 
us, has quite yielded the key to the Darwinian theorist. While • 
he accepts the primeval narrative as coming from authority, 
and as revealing the personal agency of the Creator, he 

1 " Reign of Law," pp. 28, 29. 
H 



9 8 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. VII. 

not only characterises as a "puzzle" the reasoning of M. 
Guizot, that by the exigencies of life the human race must have 
had a higher beginning than in the helplessness of infancy, 
but he indicates a preference for the development hypo- 
thesis, as "at least conceivable " and " as affording a pos- 
sible escape from the puzzle which M. Guizot puts." His 
Grace's interpretation of the words " out of the dust of the 
ground," has been expressed as follows : — " The narrative 
of creation is given to us in abstract only, and is told in two 
different forms, both having apparently for their main, per- 
haps their exclusive object, the presenting to our conception 
the personal agency of a living God. Yet this narrative in- 
dicates, however slightly, that room is left for the idea of a 
material process. ' Out of the dust of the ground,' that is, 
out of the ordinary elements of nature, was that body formed, 
which is still upheld and perpetuated by organic forces. 
Nothing which science has discovered, or can discover, is 
capable of traversing that simple narrative." J " But what- 
ever may have been the method or process of creation, it is 
creation still. If it were proved to-morrow that the first man 
was 'born' from some pre-existing form of life, it would still 
be true that such a birth must have been, in every sense of 
the word, a new creation. It would still be as true that God 
formed him ' out of the dust of the earth,' as it is true that he 
has so formed every child who is now called to answer the first 
question of all theologies." 2 His Grace prefers the supposi- 
tion that man was " born " of some animal, as itself made 
of " dust" or earthly elements, because of the close relations 
between the mere animal frame of man and that of the lower 
animals, and because creation with a process is in a degree 
more easily conceivable than creation without it. 

1 "Reign of Law," p. 27. 2 Ibid, pp. 29, 30. 



CHAP. VII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 99 

Divine interposition is admitted, or it is not ; if it is, 
much of his Grace's reasoning as to the Reign of Law, is 
valueless, and the difficulties of the sceptic are not lessened; 
for he denies altogether the least evidence of the super- 
natural. If it is not, and if this " new creation " is nothing 
more than a special or singular result, evolved under the 
Reign of Law, once and for once only, there is not much 
difference, either historically or morally, between the theory 
which connects man's birth with one of the lower animals 
at a time comparatively recent, or places his origin, ages 
ago, in some germ or simple structure. The chief difference 
between his Grace's interpretation and the theory of Mr. 
Darwin, which he repudiates, is not so much in principle as 
in time and process. 

Insisting on the truth of Scripture as to a personal Deity, 
and as to the creation of man, his Grace yet leaves it uncer- 
tain whether man was born in a state of strength and inde- 
pendence sufficient for every claim made on him, or in the 
feebleness of infancy, with a hard and constant struggle for 
existence before him. Nor does he indicate whether about 
the same time or in the same way the "mother of all living" 
was born. We are left to infer that there were two born, with 
suitable nearness in time, of some ape, gorilla, or other crea- 
ture nearly human. Judging from his Grace's argument in 
another work, w r e should infer that he supposes both Adam 
and Eve were similarly "born," and that they were endowed 
at once with so much vigour and so much intelligence, that they 
could maintain their supremacy over all existences around 
them. In no other way can we understand his vigorous 
reasoning against Sir John Lubbock's theory, — a theory in 
one respect similar to his own, — that the human race is 
descende.d from some "creature not worthy to be called 
a man." In combating Sir John Lubbock's statements, his 



100 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. vil. 

Grace successfully shows that man, with a mind far in ad- 
vance of the animals around him, could not " afford to lose 
bestial proportions of body," and adds : " If the change in 
mental power came simultaneously with the change in physi- 
cal organisation, then it was all that we can ever know or 
understand of a new creation. There is no ground what- 
ever for supposing that ordinary generation has been the 
agency employed, seeing that no efforts similar in kind are 
ever produced by that agency, so far as known to us." This 
is sufficiently explicit ; but if ordinary descent is not the 
origin of man, if some extraordinary power from without the 
Reign of Law has produced this solitary result, there is 
nothing gained in the way of lessening the difficulties which 
many feel as to supernatural action ; and his Grace only 
suggests a second mystery to remove the first. His reason- 
ing appears to be an unanswerable refutation of his own ob- 
jections to M. Guizot's argument in favour of the ordinary 
interpretation. 

" The unclothed and unprotected condition of the human 
body," he says, "its comparative slowness of foot, the 
absence of teeth adapted for prehension or for defence, the 
same want of power for similar purposes in the hands and 
fingers, the bluntness of the sense of smell, such as to 
render it useless for the detection of prey which is con- 
cealed, — all these are features which stand in strict and 
harmonious relation to the mental powers of man. But 
apart from these, they would place him at an immense dis- 
advantage in the struggle for existence. This, therefore, is 
not the direction in which the blind forces of natural 
selection could ever work. The creature ' not worthy to be 
called a man/ to whom Sir John Lubbock has referred as 
the progenitor of man, was, ex hypothesis deficient in those 
mental capacities which now distinguish the lowest of the 



chap, vil] BLENDING LIGHTS. 101 



human race. To exist at all, this creature must have been 
more animal in its structure ; it must have had bodily powers 
and organs more like those of the beasts. The continual 
improvement and perfection of these would be the direction 
of variation most favourable to the continuation of the 
species. These would not be modified in the direction of 
greater weakness without inevitable destruction, until first, 
by the gift of reason and of mental capacities of contrivance, 
there had been established an adequate preparation for the 
change. The loss of speed or of climbing power which is 
involved in the fore-arms becoming useless for locomotion, 
could not be incurred with safety until the brain was ready 
to direct a hand. The foot could not be allowed to part 
with its prone or prehensile character, until the powers of 
reason and reflection had been provided to justify, as it now 
explains, the erect position and the upward gaze. And so 
through all the innumerable modifications of form which are 
the peculiarities of man, and which stand in indissoluble 
union with his capacities of thought. The lowest degree of 
intelligence which is now possessed by the lowest savage, is 
not more than enough to compensate him for the weakness 
of his frame, or to enable him to maintain successfully the 
struggle for existence.'"' 1 

In the light of this forcibly expressed argument against 
Sir John Lubbock's theory of the descent of the human race, 
we are led to infer that his Grace means his explanation of 
our first parents being " born," and not made, to imply that 
in this way two beings were formed with such strength of 
body and endowment of mind, at the very outset, as to be 
independent of the difficulties by which such a creature as 
Sir John Lubbock has imagined, must have been beset. If 



" Primeval Man," pp. 65-68. 



102 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. VII. 

that is his Grace's view, it is not only plausible, we admit, 
but possible, in so far as the examination of the narrative in 
relation to Adam is involved, — " And the Lord God formed 
man of the dust of the ground;" but the narrative of Eve's 
creation cannot be brought within its compass without 
violence to the principles of legitimate interpretation : "And 
the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and 
he slept : and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the 
flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which the Lord God had 
taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto 
the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, 
and flesh of my flesh : she shall be called Woman, because 
she was taken out of Man." 1 

We cannot, by any critical process, rid this statement of 
the supernatural ; nor have we the means of absolutely de- 
termining the exact limits of what is figurative and what 
is literal. The process is hidden; the result is distinct. 
Christians whose bias of thinking is decidedly philosophical, 
are liable to be perplexed by merely relative difficulties ; 
and hence their apologetic efforts to minimise the super- 
natural by substituting imaginary conditions ; as, for example, 
an already organised living creature, instead of the dust, as 
the elements out of which God formed man. In the dust 
are all the constituent elements of man's body; and the 
relativity of the miracle to organised dust in some animal 
frame, or to dust or earth, not living, is of comparatively 
slight importance. The literal narrative is devoid even of 
strangeness to those who see in all creation the work of 
God's hand. When Reason is baffled, faith in the Word is 
the Christian's guide. The connection of the created with 
the will of the Creator, is utterly beyond our cognisance ; 

1 Genesis ii. 21-23. 



CHAR VII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 103 

so worlds taking their place in space — life beginning to throb 
in a germ — Adam and Eve formed, the one of the dust of 
the ground, and the other out of that dust organised and 
living — are equally baffling to reason, but equally acceptable 
to faith. " Through y^/V// we understand that the worlds were 
framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen 
were not made of things which do appear." While faith does 
not specially concern itself with one process or mode more 
than another, and retains only the facts revealed, we may 
freely concede to Christian expositors the liberty which they 
claim in giving to the phrase, " the dust of the ground," the 
widest sense consistent with the idea of man's having an 
earthly as well as a-heavenly origin • l but we must question 
every supposition which increases rather than lessens diffi- 
culties in the fair reading of the Scripture narrative. We 
see no warrant from either science, philosophy, or theology, 
for the well-meant attempt of his Grace to reduce the Scripture 
narrative to a level on which the " natural " might more nearly 
approach the supernatural, and facilitate the acceptance of 
an absolute Reign of Law. 

3. The theory of 'man 's natural development, by denying the 
interposition of the Divine power at the time and in the 
way stated in the Bible, is influencing multitudes, and we 
cannot escape the conflict of opinion which it is creating. 
What we have to do, therefore, is to ascertain whether the 
facts adduced really discredit or confirm the Bible. 

The various modifications of this theory which have been 
advocated from time to time, we need not wait to discuss. 
It is enough to consider the form in which it has been most 
recently expounded by Mr. Darwin and others. Mr. Darwin's 
theory assumes that animals have descended, at most, from 

1 "Lange's Commentary on Genesis," p. 211. 



104 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. VII. 

only four or five progenitors, and plants from an equal or lesser 
number; but analogy would lead him farther, namely, to some 
one prototype. Accordingly, he infers that probably all 
the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth, have 
descended from some one form into which life was first 
breathed by the Creator, — " There is grandeur in this view of 
life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed 
by the Creator into a few forms, or into one.'" 1 And all the 
changes which have ever been educed are due, he tells us, 
to Natural Selection, — a force which, in the history of life, we 
are to regard as having wrought all those wonders which we 
have hitherto connected with Intelligence and Purpose. 
With Natural Selection for the basis of his theory, Mr. 
Darwin has no further difficulty as to the intensity and com- 
prehensiveness of its applications. It accounts for every- 
thing connected with life and its manifestations. While 
apparently undecided as to the origin of life, he is most 
explicit as to the functions of natural selection, in steadfastly 
ruling the manifold and ceaseless struggles for existence. 

That his theory has been supported by a remarkably full 
and ingenious combination of facts, and that it has com- 
mended itself "to many accomplished naturalists, cannot be 
disputed • and yet there are in it so many serious defects 
and breaks, that it is astonishing to us to find any one 
accepting it who requires even ordinarily connected proof. 

It requires of us to believe that, without the slightest refer- 
ence to any definite End whatever, sponges, molluscs, frogs, 
fishes, monkeys, men, and all other living things have, in the 
turmoil of ages, been assigned, by Natural Selection alone, 
all their varied proportions and spheres. 

It requires of us to believe, against all the evidence which 

1 "Origin of Species," p. 570; fifth edition, 1869. 



CHAP. VII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 105 

confronts us, that there is no design whatever in the manifold 
structures of plants and animals ; and none in those bodies 
of ours, so fearfully and wonderfully made. 

It requires of us to believe that the varied relations of all the 
colours in nature are but the result of mechanical and chemi- 
cal combinations, framed by Natural Selection; that the blue 
of the sky, the green of the landscape, and the neutral tint 
of nature's back-ground, are without a purpose; that the 
splendour of the heavens by night, and the music of the 
grove as birds warble their song by day, were never intended 
to give pleasure, or to conduce to the happiness of any 
human being. All these facts are mere sequences under the 
sway of Natural Selection, which of itself understands nothing 
and foresees nothing. God, we are told in Holy Writ, " hath 
made everything beautiful in his time." 1 But this theory 
denies the intentional goodness that has enrobed the world 
with that surpassing loveliness on which every eye delights 
to rest. In making these statements, we do Mr. Darwin 
no wrong. He has firmly refused to recognise beauty 
as an end in the history of the globe, and goes so far as to 
state that the admission would be destructive of his theory ; 
even to admit variety as an end, would be fatal to it. Be it 
so ; the theory is, in this respect, opposed not only to the 
Bible teachings, but to our intuitions, our experience, and 
our common sense. 

It requires of us to believe that the skill which the bee 
shows in the structure of its cell, the ingenuity of the spider 
in constructing its web, the mechanical fitness in the 
economy of bird-life and the ease with which flight is con- 
ducted, the graceful movements of fishes in the deep and 
the rapidity with which some can change their colour, are 



1 Ecclesiastes iii. 11, 



Ib6 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. VII. 

all nothing more than the mechanical sequences of a series 
of facts ; — in a word, they are the mere unintentional results 
of some blind force, controlled by an unintelligent if not in- 
deed unintelligible power, which, after incalculable efforts and 
failures, finds something which it leaves in a permanent state, 
but of course, without the remotest reference to that per- 
manent state as an end. 

It requires of us to believe that the structure of animals, 
their habits, and their relations to climate and soil ; that the 
exquisitely delicate formation of the eye and its relation to 
light and colour; and that the adjustment of the ear to the 
almost endless variety of sounds ; are meaningless results. 

It requires of us to believe that man has been evolved not 
in conformity with any purpose, but merely amid, the sequences 
of events, by insensible degrees, and after innumerable ex- 
periments and failures. 

It requires of us to believe that man has been in every 
creature, in every stage, — from the primordial sea-weed to the 
mollusc, from the lowest mollusc to the serpent, from the ser- 
pent to the monkey, and from the monkey to the highest ape. 

It requires of us to believe that man has travelled a long 
and aimless journey, and at last not only enjoys the highest 
bodily organisation, but has intellect, imagination, will, con- 
science, ennobling aspirations after a higher state and a happier 
home, a sense of right and wrong, and an estimate of virtue 
and vice ; and to rest assured that all these have turned up 
without design, in desultory flashes, or in some other way 
from molecular action, cerebral impulses, or other mysterious 
agencies. There is no other origin admissible ; it must be 
accepted or rej ected. ' ' We must therefore place virtue, in this 
theory, precisely on the same footing with every other attri- 
bute of every other animal, and account for its existence in 
the same way ; that is, we must say that when the first vir- 



CHAP. VII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 107 



tuous men, or men with a capacity to appreciate virtue, were 
accidentally elaborated, it gave them a decided advantage 
over all their congeners who did not share with them in the 
new quality, and so enabled them to keep their place in the 
struggle for life, whilst their competitors were exterminated 
by that rigorous law which knows no exception. In one 
word, the men endowed with virtue exterminated all those 
who lacked that endowment." 

"If this should be a startling history of the origin of moral 
excellence, and if it should be contradicted by all the 
records of our race, we must nevertheless believe that it 
was so, — for the theory imperatively demands it, and cannot 
subsist without the supposition." 1 

What evidence have we for so sweeping a theory ? We 
admit, of course, that there is gradation from the lowest to 
the highest forms of both animal and plant life, and that 
identity of plan appears in the structure of all the verte- 
brated animals. The question is, Are they all related 
by descent! If they are, as Mr. Darwin supposes, there 
must be abundant traces of imperfect, half-formed, and 
mutilated creatures cast down in the keen struggle of 
life, and preserved for our learning in the stone-volume. 
The test is quite simple, it is the suggestion of common 
sense, — Are the resolute assertions of this theory ade- 
quately supported by facts ? Have the links which connect 
the races been discovered ? Have the wrecks of countless 
experiments been found strewn over the old surfaces, and 
embedded in them? The preceding lower and the succeed- 
ing higher organisations have been found, — where are the 
intermediate and the immature beings ? Their presence, as 
witnesses, is indispensable. Where is there evidence on 



1 "Darwinian Theory Examined," pp. 337, 338. 



108 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. VII. 

earth, now, of the pigeon passing into the crow or of the 
wading bird into the hawk, of the horse into the cow or of 
the dog into the cat, or vice versa ? Granting that the section 
of time in which we live has behind it all the millions of 
years which Darwin's theory demands, we should surely 
find within it some such results as he leads us to antici- 
pate. But it is not so, the links are awanting; and Mr. 
Darwin, in acknowledging this blank, admits that his theory 
is as yet proofless. He shrouds the origin of life, — as to its 
cause, and its early development of forms, — in impenetrable 
mystery. He hesitates about the Deity in the one, and draws 
the veil of millions of years . over the other. Theories are 
safe practice amid vagueness like that. But is his demand 
of millions of years before the Silurian system, with its 
glimpses of life, admissible ? It is boldly made. " If my 
theory be true," he says, "it is indisputable that before the 
lower Silurian stratum was deposited, long periods elapsed, 
as long as, or probably far longer, than the whole interval 
from the Silurian age to the present day ; and during these 
vast, yet quite unknown periods of time, the world swarmed 
with living creatures." He has looked long into these 
depths of the past, yet no witnesses have come to his aid. 
The silence has been unbroken, and he confesses it. " To 
the question Why we do not find records of these vast 
primordial periods," he replies, "I can give no answer, — the 
difficulty of understanding the absence of vast piles of 
fossiliferous strata which on my theory, no doubt, were 
somewhere accumulated before the Silurian epoch, is very 
great. The case, at present, must remain inexplicable, and 
may be truly urged as a valid argument against the views 
here entertained." The modesty of this admission renders 
adverse criticism unpleasant. But without dwelling on the 
absence of facts, we may press the necessity on such 



chap, vil] BLENDING LIGHTS. 109 

theorists of having some regard to geological time. Fortun- 
ately, the question is finding ardent students, and investiga- 
tions as to the cooling of the globe, and other relations in 
its physical condition, are putting an end to speculations 
which assume many millions of years before the Silurian 
era. Theorists like Mr. Darwin, err egregiously in not in- 
quiring into the possibility of the earth's crust having, 
millions of years ago, those exact conditions which they 
demand. Palaeontologists have found it too often con- 
venient to take refuge amid the mists of the past, when 
definiteness has been demanded ; but the recent investiga- 
tions of Sir William Thomson, as we have already stated, have 
checked this thoughtless extension of indefinite ages, and 
have brought them to recognise in their professedly scientific 
pursuits the necessity of greater precision. As against the 
ages preceding the Silurian period, there is proof that the 
conditions of the globe were such as to render the existence 
of life improbable, if not impossible. 

But taking the geological strata which teem with fossils, 
we demand proof of gradual descent by Natural Selection ; 
and Mr. Darwin does not and cannot give it. He pleads 
in excuse the incompleteness of the geological volume ; it 
"is a history of the world," he says, "imperfectly kept, and 
written in a changing dialect. Of this history, we possess 
the last volume, relating only to two or three centuries. Of 
this volume, only here and there a short chapter has been 
preserved; and of each page, only here and there a few 
lines. On this view, the difficulties above discussed are 
greatly diminished or disappear." 

We cannot accept this apology. The most delicate 
structures have been preserved in the stone-volume; and why 
not, at least, some of those huge intermediate, immature, or 
imperfectly-developed animals which must have lived and 



HO BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. VII. 

perished under the sway of Natural Selection ? Mr. Darwin 
does not hesitate to admit that the number of the perished 
links has been vast, — " The number of intermediate and 
transitional links between all living and extinct species must 
have been inconceivably great. But, assuredly, if this 
theory be true, such have lived upon the earth." 1 If so, 
where are they ? How have they disappeared ? Has Na- 
tural Selection been busy, also, with the materials that 
should be saved as witnesses of the past, ranging from before 
the Silurian period till now ? 

But granting the imperfection of the geological volume ; 
granting, indeed, for argument's sake, all that Mr. Darwin 
demands, what of the diffused life in Xhe firesetit period, with 
its almost endless diversity of form ? The results of the 
past are before us in the living of every climate. In every 
condition, life-forms are subject to the tests of the anatomist, 
the physiologist, the chemist, and the metaphysician. The 
page is wide as the world, and every character is distinct. 
If, therefore, the theory has in it any elements of truth, they 
should appear in animals, the living representatives of at 
least some of those transitions which may not have been 
preserved in bygone ages, or which, if preserved, have not 
yet been discovered. Surely, creatures at the various in- 
termediate stages of blind experimenting, should be turning 
up now and again ; for the struggles of life are continued, 
and Natural Selection is still supreme. That no such facts 
are forthcoming as the interests of truth and the ordinary 
principles of inductive reasoning demand, should modify 
the enthusiasm of theorists, and warrant the rejection of 
their dreams. 

No one pretends that the intermediate or immature links 

1 "Origin of Species," p. 348. 



CHAP. VII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. HI 

are discoverable in existing races. They are separated by 
apparently insuperable barriers to descent. Arrest is laid 
visibly on community of species. What is inexplicable in 
the past, is equally inexplicable in the present. It is quite 
true that, in Mr. Darwin's theory, " the same number of 
vertebrae forming the neck of the giraffe and the elephant, 
at once explains itself on the theory of descent with slow 
and successive modifications ; " but is it not equally true 
that, on the same theory, creatures should be discovered 
budding into the giraffe or into the elephant, and that 
transitional links should be found between the ox and the 
mule, or between the dove and the hawk, with the nature 
and habits in part of each, and between all other species, 
also, that are distinct ? Why are there not incipient men 
and incipient women, half man and half lower animal, or 
two-thirds woman and one-third inferior animal ? Why are 
there no projections of new and advancing structures to be 
kept and improved on ? 

The theory, however, is not without its hopes. It cherishes 
bright prospects. A prophetic spirit shapes its future. If 
Natural Selection has done so much from the first spore of 
life, what may it not accomplish in future ages with such a 
platform as the highly-organised beings of the present time ? 
The theory necessitates the incoming of higher structures 
than man's. Mr. Darwin admits this, and forecasts it when 
he says, — " The ultimate result will be that each creature 
will tend to become more and more improved in relation to 
its conditions of life. This improvement will, I think, 
inevitably lead to the gradual advancement of the organisa- 
tion of the greater number of human beings throughout the 
world. But here we enter on a very intricate subject ; for 
naturalists have not defined to each others' satisfaction what 
is meant by advance in organisation. Among the vertebrce, 



112 BLENDIXG LIGHTS. [CHAP. VII. 

the degree of intellect and an approach in structure to man, 
clearly come into play." 1 Man is, as yet, the most advanced 
in organisation ; intellect has come into play, but nature is 
not exhausted. Life is on an upward path ; and if this 
theory be true, surely, as intellect has come out of non- 
intellect, or a physical combination, what shall be the 
ultimate product of intellect, and which of them shall 
Natural Selection preserve ? Without wasting time on con- 
jecture, we may ask whether perfection shall be reached by 
a mollusc before it has come to the human platform ? Is 
" gradual advancement " to carry all life-structures onward 
to the organised condition which man has reached, and 
shall distinctions cease ? If this general improvement should 
ever take place, when every creature will thus be advanced to 
the limits of perfectibility, there will be no more Natural 
Selection ; for she will have done her work, and, consequently, 
there will be no more struggles for life. Creatures will not 
be waging battle within battle ; in fact, all the destroyers will 
disappear, and they will be transformed into some superior 
position " by an advancement of the brain for intellectual 
purposes ; and even the intestine worm will perhaps be in a 
fair way to study logic and propound theories." - 

The theory begins in mystery, and ends in it. It dreams 
of a beginning untold ages ago, it dreams of a kind of 
perfection untold ages hence, and places midway a beautiful 
exposition of many facts which yet leave the theory proofless. 

But, in conclusion, the theorists are at war with one 
another. As Ishmaelites, their hand is against every man. 
Each is a law in theorising to himself. Their contendings 
may well teach us caution. Lamarck set those right who 
preceded him. The author of The Vestiges of Creation out- 

1 "Origin of Species," p. 131. 

2 "Darwinian Theory Examined/' p. 157. 



CHAP. VII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 1 13 

stripped Lamarck ; and Mr. Darwin sets both aside, while 
he in turn has been severely censured by M. Tremaux, and 
has all his reasoning controverted in favour of the new 
theory. Lamarck believed in spontaneous generation, Dar- 
win does not. The author of The Vestiges expounded a law 
of development, and Mr. Darwin displaces it by Natural 
Selection. M. Tremaux has repudiated the origin which Mr. 
Darwin has assumed, and insists on our believing that not 
water, but the soil, is the origin of all life, and therefore of 
man. With him there is no progress; all creatures have 
reached their resting-place. But man rises or sinks according 
to the more recent or ancient soil he dwells on. Professor 
Huxley is unwilling to abandon his idea that life may come 
from dead matter, and is not disposed to accept of Mr. 
Darwin's explanation of the origin of life by the Creator 
having, at first, breathed it into one or more forms. While 
accepting Mr. Darwin's theory of a common descent for 
man with all other creatures, he not only differs from him as 
to the beginning, but he admits that there is no gradual 
transition from the one to the other. He acknowledges that 
" the structural differences between man and even the highest 
apes, are great and significant;" and yet, because there is 
no sign of gradual transition " between the gorilla and the 
orang, or the orang and the gibbon," he infers that they all 
had a common origin ; whereas, the more natural conclusion 
from the facts would be, that they had separate beginnings. 

Mr. Wallace, whose claims are admitted to be equal to 
those of Mr. Darwin as the propounder of the theory of the 
origin of species and as to the powers expressed by Natural 
Selection, has firmly asserted that, with all its resources, 
Natural Selection is utterly inadequate to account for the 
origin and structure of the human race. "A superior in- 
telligence has guided that development in a definite direction 



114 BLENDING LIGHTS. f CHAP. VII. 

and for a special purpose." It is interesting to observe how 
completely these two great naturalists differ from one 
another. Mr. Wallace argues against Natural Selection as 
sufficient to explain the greatness of man's brain in even the 
lowest savages, who have little more use for it than the 
lower animals around them, whose brain is greatly inferior. 
These savages, in having a brain little inferior to that of the 
highest type of man, possess that which is comparatively of 
so little use to them, that it could not have been obtained 
in the struggle for existence. " They possess," he says, " a 
mental organ beyond their needs. Natural Selection could 
only have endowed savage man with a brain a little superior 
to that of an ape ; whereas, he actually possesses one very 
little inferior to that of a philosopher." Mr. Wallace also 
specifies other facts in the natural history of man, for which 
Mr. Darwin's theory utterly fails to account. In the 
structure of the hands and feet, in that also of the larynx, 
giving the power of speech and especially of musical 
sounds, he finds evidence of the inadequacy of Natural Se- 
lection. His references to the human body are so pointed, 
that their effect cannot be slighted by unprejudiced in- 
quirers, — " The soft, naked, sensitive skin of man, entirely 
free from the hairy covering which is so universal among 
other mammalia, cannot be explained on the theory of 
Natural Selection. The habits of savages show that they 
feel the want of this covering, which is most completely 
absent in man exactly where it is thickest in other animals. 
We have no reason whatever to believe that it would have 
been hurtful or even useless to primitive man : and under 
these circumstances, its complete abolition, shown by its 
never reverting in mixed breeds, is a demonstration of the 
agency of some other power than a law of the survival of 
the fittest in the development of man from the lower 



CHAP. VII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 115 

animals." 1 Mr. Wallace's discussion of "The Limits of 
Natural Selection, as Applied to Man/' is not only interest- 
ing in itself, but is instructive, as showing us how little is 
gained by abandoning the simple teaching of Scripture for 
the elaborate and conflicting theories of our ablest and most 
accomplished naturalists. 

1 "The Limits of Natural Selection, as applied to Man," by A. R. 
Wallace, pp. 355, 356. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Have there been more Origins than one for the Human Race? — 
The Bible Doctrine in relation to Recent llieories. 

"As we go westward, we observe the light colour predominate over 
the dark ; and then again, when we come within the influence of damp 
from the sea air, we see the shade deepen into the general blackness of 
the coast population." — Dr. Livingstone. 

IT is more than two hundred years 1 since La Peyrere, 
basing his reasoning on the Scriptures, argued in favour 
of a plurality of origins for the human family. Taking the 
history of Cain for his guide,' 2 he maintained that there was a 
Non-Adamite race, the ancestors of the Gentiles ; and that 
the Jews alone, of whose origin and history the Bible 
treats, were the descendants of Adam. La Peyrere was a 
theologian who vindicated as true all that is in the Bible ; 
" and exhibited in his work,''' says Quatrefages, " a mixture 
of complete faith and free criticism," but he found, in that 
age, no listeners. After his time there was a long silence, 
though possibly much thought, on the subject, until Voltaire 
and Rousseau, seizing La Peyrere's arguments, wielded 
them against the Scriptures with the commanding brilliancy 
of their genius. The contest was soon transferred to the 
United States of America, where the reasoning of the French 
Encyclopaedists was reproduced with all that intensity of 
feeling and that variety of resource which the interests of the 
Slavery question created. The Christianity and scholarship 
of America gave to the discussion a magnitude and influence 

1 1655. 2 Genesis iv. 16, 17. 






CHAP. VIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 117 

which could not have been secured for it by the infidelity 
of France. Theologians became, unintentionally, earnest 
coadjutors with infidels and sceptics in the effort to 
establish a separate origin for the negro race. The question 
has of late lost much of its interest ; because, on the one 
hand, the gigantic system of slavery in America has collapsed, 
and because, on the other, the most commonly accepted 
theories as to development and evolution include, in their 
basis, unity of origin or race. It may be of some advantage, 
however, to review briefly the present aspects of the question. 

I. — The Bible Doctrine. 

The Bible doctrine is distinctly stated. In the geologic 
fulness of time, God " created man, male and female ; " 
"Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the 
mother of all living." In the New Testament, unity 
of origin is taught by Jesus Christ himself. He reaffirms 
the Old Testament doctrine. Adam had said of Eve, 
" This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh : she 
shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of 
Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his 
mother, and shall cleave unto his wife ; and they shall be 
one flesh." And Jesus, the second Adam, asserting the same 
truth, bound the Old to the New Testament, when he said — 
" But from the beginning of the creation God made them 
male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his 
father and mother, and cleave to his wife." 1 He abolished 
distinctions by his command, "Go ye into all the world, and 
preach the Gospel to every creature." 2 " Wherefore, as by 
one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin ; and 
so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned : " 3 
God " commandeth all men every where to repent." 4 

1 Mark x. 6, 7. 2 Mark xvi. 15. 3 Rom. v. 12. 4 Acts xvii. 30. 



Ii8 [BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. VIII. 

The apostle Paul, in the centre of Athens, in the midst of 
matchless monuments of human skill, and confronting the 
learning and the pride which exalted the Athenian above 
every race in the world, boldly proclaimed to them the dis- 
tasteful truth, that " God hath made of one blood all nations 
of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." x 

While these direct statements are accepted by Agassiz, 
and many others who hold fast and defend the Scriptures, 
they regard them as expressing only what is applicable 
to the Jewish and Caucasian race ; and they, at the same 
time, insist that God created other races in separate 
zoological provinces. Strangely enough, while they advo- 
cate diversity of origin, they no less earnestly advocate unity 
of species ; and thus they satisfy, as they suppose, the de- 
claration of the apostle, that " all are of one blood." The 
facts on which different theories have been framed are so 
numerous and so varied, that they would require the fullest 
examination, were it not that the controversy has of late 
changed its character. The past has its series of testimonies 
in the skulls of long-buried races, and the present makes 
its evidence commensurate with the inhabitants of the 
world. 

Omitting, in the meantime, the first, let us note some of 
the facts in the second series. The world is its basis ; the 
human race is the subject. There is not a Continent which 
the merchant or the missionary has not traversed; not a hill- 
tribe has been left unnoted, nor an island unexplored. Vast 
groups attract attention; and subordinate varieties intensify 
the interest. There are universally-accepted race distinc- 
tions, — as in the Caucasian, with his fair skin, dark and 
curling or flowing hair, and ample brow ; in the Mongolian. 

1 Acts xvii, 26, 



CHAP. VIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 119 

with his receding forehead, obliquely -set eyes, projecting 
chin, thin long black hair, and sallow skin fitting tightly like 
parchment to the cheek-bone ; in the Ethiopian or Negro, 
with dark skin, woolly hair, prominent cheek-bones, and thick 
lips; in the Malay, with his reddish-brown colour, lank black 
hair, square skull, and low forehead ; and in the American, 
with his brown complexion, sunken eye, and swollen cheek- 
bone. Minuter peculiarities are recognisable, — from the 
Patagonian, with his commanding figure, in the southern 
projection of one Continent, America, to the Bosjesman, with 
his shrunken and shrivelled frame, in the southern projection 
of another Continent, Africa \ from the diminutive Esqui- 
maux, seated in his ice-built home, — his crystal palace, with 
its door of snow, — or setting out in eager hunting or fishing 
enterprise in a temperature cold enough to make mercury 
freeze, to the Indian in the steaming jungle of the Carnatic, 
or the African lounging in the shade of rock or sallying 
forth with light step in easy enjoyment of an atmosphere 
hot enough to make ether boil. We see man subsisting on 
every form of food, — from the cooling fruits which the tropics 
provide for the savage, to the scant shell-fish of southern 
and the coarse oil of northern tribes; and we see every 
mode of life, — from the huntsman, penetrating the forest or 
scouring the plain, to the artizan in civilised communities, 
toiling dust-covered, and scorched with furnace heat amid 
the ceaseless clank of machinery, — and from the herdsman, 
contemplatively following his flocks or watching the stars 
on which Chaldean shepherds loved long ago to gaze, to the 
philosopher, apart and alone, grappling with profoundest pro- 
blems, or the scientific student, rejoicing in some discovered 
application which may benefit thousands of his fellow-men. 
These are but glimpses of many facts which every one ac- 
knowledges, and the question to be determined is, Are all 



120 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. VIII. 



these compatible with descent from one pair, Adam and Eve; 
or must we infer diversity of origin in zoological centres ? 

II. — The Theory of Diversity of Origin. 

Sceptics who at one time reasoned in favour of a plurality 
of origins in opposition to the Bible, have abandoned 
their theory, and adopted as its substitute development or 
evolution from one or more life-germs. We have therefore 
to do only with those who, holding the Bible in common 
with ourselves, defend diversity of origin, or a belief in 
several centres for the human family. 

" The circumstance," says Agassiz, " that wherever we 
find a human race naturally circumscribed, it is connected 
in its limitation with what we call, in natural history, a zoolo- 
gical and botanical province, — that is to say, with a natural 
limitation of a particular association of animals and plants, 
— shows most unequivocally the intimate relation existing 
between mankind and the animal kingdom, in their adapta- 
tion to the physical world. The Arctic race of men, covering 
the treeless region near the arctics, in Europe, Asia, and 
America, is circumscribed in the three continents within 
limits very similar to those occupied by that particular 
combination of animals which are peculiar to the same 
tracts of land and sea." 

" The region inhabited by the Mongolian race is also a 
zoological province, covered by a combination of animals 
naturally circumscribed within the same regions. The Malay 
race covers also a natural zoological province. New Holland 
again constitutes a very peculiar zoological province, in which 
we have another particular race of men. And it is further re- 
markable in this connection, that the plants and animals now 
living on the continent of Africa south of the Atlas, within 
the same range within which the Negroes are naturally cir- 
cumscribed, have a character differing widely from that of 



CHAP. VIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 121 

the plants and animals of the northern shores of Africa and 
the valley of Egypt ; while the Cape of Good Hope, within 
the limits inhabited by the Hottentots, is characterised by a 
vegetation and a fauna equally peculiar, and differing in its 
features from that over which the African race is spread." 

For these reasons, Agassiz infers " that men were primi- 
tively located in the various parts which they inhabit, and 
that they arose everywhere in those harmonious numeric 
proportions with other living beings, which would at once 
secure their preservation and contribute to their welfare. 
To suppose that all men originated from Adam and Eve, 
is to assume that the order of creation has been changed in 
the course of historical times, and to give to the Mosaic 
record a meaning that it was never intended to have. On 
that ground, we would particularly insist upon the propriety 
of considering Genesis as chiefly relating to the history of 
the white race, with special reference to the history of the 
Jews." 1 

Professor Agassiz takes especial pains, at the same time, 
to make it clear that he regards all the different races not 
only as constituting a common brotherhood, but as morally 
responsible and equally related to the Divine government ; 
yet we trust that, as we advance, it will appear that there is 
nothing in the facts or circumstances to which he refers in- 
compatible with the diffusion of the whole family of man 
from a common centre. 

Proof of Diversity of Origin considered. — The chief reasons 
which are urged by Agassiz and others against acknowledging 
descent from Adam and Eve, and in proof of more origins 
than one, are (1) variety of colour, and (2) variety of bodily 
conformation ; and the question is, Are these varieties 



1 " Christian Examiner," July, 1850. 



122 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. VIII. 

compatible with the common interpretation of the Scripture 
record ? 

i. The differences in colour, as every one admits, are very 
remarkable ; but it must be borne in mind that there are 
forces at work in climate, in soil, and through other agencies, 
which are, as yet, mysterious in their relation to human 
physiology. The results are visible, but the processes on 
which they depend are concealed ; and these results show 
not only men, but some of the lower animals, so completely 
changing their colour, as to remove all difficulty regarding 
the blackness of the Negro or Ethiopic race. 

Physiologists hastily assumed that in the negro there was 
a singular network beneath the skin which was the source of 
his blackness, and they made this their warrant for separating 
him specifically from the white race ; but more accurate 
microscopic observation has proved the existence in all men 
of that network, — in the white in the temperate zone, as well 
as in the black in the torrid. It is in man everywhere, and 
is susceptible of those subtle influences which produce 
different degrees of colour. It contributes to man's comfort, 
and fits him for all climates. 

Those Portuguese who have been long settled in Africa 
and the East Indies, have become perfectly black in colour : 
so, also, Greeks and Turks are changing into the dusky and 
sable. 

The Jew, whose invariable identity is everywhere con- 
spicuous, and who is everywhere testifying to the truth of 
Scripture, as an inhabitant of all lands yet with a resting- 
place in none, represents colour in all its degrees. In the 
plains of the Ganges, his skin is jet black; in Syria, he is of 
a* dusky hue ; in Poland, his hair is light and his complexion 
ruddy ; on the Malabar coast, in one colony — the older — he 
is black, in the other colony — the younger — he is com- 



CHAP. VIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 123 

paratively fair. " For 1800 years," says one whose authority 
none will dispute, " that race [the Jews] has been dispersed 
in different latitudes and climates, and they have preserved 
themselves distinct from intermixture with other races of 
mankind. There are some Jews still lingering in the valley 
of the Jordan, who have been oppressed by the successive 
conquerors of Syria for ages, — a low race of people, — and 
described by trustworthy travellers as being black as any of 
the Ethiopic races. Others of the Jewish people, partici- 
pating in European civilisation and dwelling in the northern 
nations, show instances of the light complexion, the blue 
eyes and fair hair of the Scandinavian families. The con- 
dition of the Hebrews since their dispersion, has not been 
such as to admit of much admixture by the proselytism of 
household slaves. We are thus led to account for the differ- 
ences in colour by the influence of climate, without having to 
refer them to original or specific distinctions." l 

Nor are changes in colour limited to man. Whatever 
may be the process, similar results appear among the lower 
animals. In Guinea, every fowl and every dog become, 
like the people, black. In America, the pale horse of this 
country becomes commonly a chesnut brown. In the 
Romagna Campagna, the ox is grey; in other parts of Italy, 
red. Sheep in Italy are chiefly black ; in England, chiefly 
white. Horses in Corsica become mottled, and the well- 
known carriage dog shows also a peculiar change. 

2. Changes in physical conformation harmonise with 
change in colour. Mr. Reade, in his work, " Savage Africa," 
when writing of the races on the Atlantic coast, says that 
the red races change to black when they descend into the 

1 Professor Owen. "Lecture before Cambridge University, 1859," 
p. 96. 



124 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. VIII. 

lowlands, and that, while some years ago it was rare to see a 
black Fula or Puelh, it is scarcely possible to see any other 
than blacks without passing far into the interior. Associated 
with the Mandingos, they are driving out the negroes, and 
taking their places on the river, and they are themselves so 
visibly changing their features as to be becoming negroes. 
To change their geographical position, is to change their 
features. The red-skinned inhabitants of the mountain 
terraces of Western Africa, descending into the malarious 
swamps, have lost their original character, and have become 
degraded in both body and mind ; but these negroes are by 
no means representative of the true African races. " In 
Africa," says the same writer, "there are three grand races, 
as there may be said to be three grand geological divisions. 

"The Libyan stock inhabit the primitive and volcanic 
trails. They have a very tawny complexion, Caucasian 
features, and long black hair. 

" On the sandstones will be found an intermediate type. 
They are darker than their parents ; they have short and 
very curly hair ; their lips are thick, and their nostrils wide 
at the base. 

"And finally, in the alluvia, one will find the negroes with 
a black skin, woolly hair, and prognathous development." 1 

That soil, climate, and the supply of food determine in a 
large degree the physical conformation of different races, is 
an almost universally accepted truth. Prichard, Reade, and 
Livingstone, as well as others, bear united testimony to the 
deteriorating effects, physically and mentally, of mere ex- 
ternal circumstances alone. Prichard has assured us that 
those races in which the negro character appears in its most 
exaggerated form, and which present the most debased and the 

1 See "What is Truth?" by Rev. E. Burgess, pp. 397, 398. 



CHAP. VIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 125 



ugliest blacks, are to be found, in most instances, inhabiting 
swampy and unhealthy tracts near the sea-coast, where they 
have the barest means of subsistence. They are not only 
social outcasts, but oppressed; yet, whenever their social 
condition and external surroundings improve, there is ob- 
viously a corresponding advance in their features and their 
general bearing. 1 Reade is no less emphatic in contending 
that, while the degradation of the negro is altogether indis- 
putable, it is only degradation, or disease, or accident, and 
nothing more. And Livingstone, in some of his more recent 
letters, has proved not only that the debasement of the negro 
tribes is exceptional, but that, when free, and occupying a 
fair field, they present some of the nobler aspects of the 
human race. 2 Testimony has been borne by Humboldt to 
the effects on physical conformation which the elevated 
plateau and its rarer atmosphere commonly produced. 
The respiratory organs, becoming more active, demand 
more scope, and the result has been that, in the Andes, 
such a development of chest is common as to be almost 
a deformity. 3 To come nearer home, we have, in the 
comparatively recent history of Ireland, decided evidence 
of the rapidity with which, in changed circumstances, 
a people may become degenerated. In 1641 and 1689, 
there was a bitter struggle between the British and the 
rebels, which ended in the native Irish, — stalwart men, — 
being driven from the counties Down and Armagh to the 
bleak districts in the west, and in less than two centuries 
the sad effects became painfully visible. The mouth, the 



1 "Researches," vol. II., p. 231. 

2 See also "Livingstone's Researches in South Africa," ch. xix. ; and 
Man and his Migrations," by Latham. 

3 See also Darwin's "Descent of Man," vol. I., p. 119. 



126 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. VIII. 

chin, the cheek-bones, the height, the general appearance, 
betokened a sunken condition akin to barbarism. 

The theory of Agassiz is untenable, because it is un- 
necessary for the explanation of changes in even contiguous 
spheres which can with ease be traced historically, and 
because it fails, also, in reference to the lower animals in his 
zoological provinces, inasmuch as they adapt themselves 
to distant provinces and flourish in them. The horses, for 
example, let loose in South America, have not only not de- 
teriorated by their transference to a new province, but have 
improved. Their glossy hair has passed into a shaggy fur : 
and all their colours, white, brown, and red, have disappeared 
in the one prevailing colour. The swine introduced have 
similarly changed. The hog of the mountain of the Paranos 
now resembles the wild boar once in this country and 
France. The bristles have given place to a thick fur, often 
crisp ; and, whatever their first colour, they are uniformly 
black. The bodily structure, also, has altered to suit their 
new condition; the snout has become long, the forehead 
vaulted, and the hind legs lengthened. The dog never 
barks, but howls like the wolf: and the structure of the head 
varies from the breadth of the mastiff to the narrowness of 
the greyhound. In other parts of the world, similar modifi- 
cations take place. The African sheep becomes goat-like, 
and assumes hair for wool; and the Wallachian sheep 
gradually presents perpendicular spiral horns. 

Facts crowd on us ; they would fill volumes. Animals 
in our own land constitute of themselves sufficient proof. 
The horse varies from the gigantic dray-horse of our streets 
to the small Shetland pony, scrambling with amazing 
agility over highland crags ; the dog, from the St. Bernard 
searching for some frozen traveller, to the lap-dog nestling 
in the warmth of the drawing-room; and cattle, from the 



CHAP. VIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 1 27 

small highland steer to the huge prize oxen of our shows. 
Unless Britain itself can be divided into zoological provinces, 
the proofs which have been stated show so fully the adap- 
tiveness of different animals, and- the changes in colour 
and conformation to which it leads, that we are fully 
warranted in rejecting the theory of diversity of origin in 
distinct zoological centres. 

It remains for us to give here an outline of the extensive 
evidence which has been adduced in support of the Bible 
doctrine, as held by the opponents of Agassiz. 

3. Proofs in support of Unity of Origin. 

The direct proofs in support of unity of origin are, (1) 
Bodily Structure, (2) Language, (3) Tradition, and (4) Mental 
Endowment. 

1. Bodily Structure. — Anatomists and physiologists of the 
highest standing assign to man's bodily structure a place 
distinct from that of all other animals. The following 
conclusions have been established, whatever may be the 
variety of the race : — 

1. All have the same number of teeth, and of addi- 
tional bones in their body. 

2. They all shed their teeth in the same way, which also 
differ from others in that they are of equal length. 

3. They all have the same upright posture, — they walk 
and look upwards. 

4. The head is set in every variety in the same way. 

5. They possess two hands. 

6. They possess smooth bodies, and heads covered with 
hair. 

7. Every muscle and every nerve in every variety are the 
same. 

8. They all speak and laugh. 

9. They eat different kinds of food, and live in all climates. 



128 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. VIII. 

10." They are more helpless, and grow more slowly than 
other animals. 

Professor Owen has very distinctly given his decision 
on this question in the following terms: — "With regard 
to the value to be assigned to the distinctions of race, 
in consequence of not any of those differences being equi- 
valent to those characteristics of the skeleton or other parts 
of the frame upon which specific differences are founded by 
naturalists in reference to the rest of animal creation, I have 
come to the conclusion that man forms one species, and that 
differences are but indicative of varieties." " The unity of the 
human species is demonstrated by the constancy of those 
osteological and dental characters to which the attention is 
more particularly directed in the investigation of the corres- 
ponding characters in the higher quadrumana." 1 

ii. There is perhaps no argument in favour of the Bible 
doctrine of unity of race more direct than that which has 
been founded on the physiological barrier to descent from 
mixing distinct species. When crossed, they produce 
hybrids which are either barren, or degenerate so speedily 
that they die out. Varied experiments have fully proved 
the infertility of hybrids. The law which controls 
different species also checks their descent ; the mule, 
for example, closes the history of descent from the horse 
and the ass, and similar results are always educed from 
similar experiments. Hybridity, in the crossing of the horse 
and the ass, reaches its end in a single generation, and is 
thus a strong protest against a theory which is at present 
supported by influential advocacy. The plausible combina- 
tions of suitable facts, which the intermixture of varieties has 
supplied, do not, in the remotest degree, show the possibility 

1 Lecture before Cambridge University, p. 103. 



CHAP. VIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 129 

of descent from clearly distinct species. While we have 
before us barriers which Nature does not overpass, among 
both living plants and animals, we can do nothing else than 
reject suppositions as to all barriers having been, by some 
means, overcome in bygone ages. Purity of species has 
been preserved with obvious care. " It strikes us naturally 
with wonder," says Professor Dana, " that even in senseless 
plants, without the emotional repugnance of instinct, and 
with reproductive organs that are all outside, the free winds 
being often the means of transmission, there should be rigid 
law sustained against intermixture. The supposed cases of 
perpetuated fertile hybridity are so exceedingly few, as almost 
to condemn themselves as no true examples of an abnor- 
mity so abhorrent to the system. They violate a principle 
so essential to the integrity of the plant-kingdom, and so 
opposed to Nature's whole plan, that we rightly demand 
long and careful study before admitting the exceptions." 1 

A careful review of this section of evidence will satisfy 
you that organic species preserve permanent distinctions, 
and that all the varieties of the human race constitute only 
one species, which has descended from a single pair. 

2. Language. — Language has unexpectedly become a 
witness to the unity of the race. A new course of investigation 
has been commenced, and has created surpassing interest. 
The discovery, less than a century ago, of the Sanskrit liter- 
ature, has revolutionised long-accepted opinions as to the 
Hebrew language, and is gradually removing confusion. It 
has become the connecting link between widely-separated 
dialects, and has established a new classification. The 
Asiatic Society, founded in Calcutta in 1784, and rendered 
illustrious by the exertions of Sir William Jones, Carey the 



1 Quoted in " What is truth?" by Rev. E. Burgess, A.M., p. 



K 



130 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. VIII. 

missionary, and others, gave impulses to investigation which 
are still sustained ; and a history in philology of unequalled 
brilliancy has run on for half a century. A new science, 
that of Language, classed by Max Miiller among the 
Physical Sciences, has been created ; and the longer it is 
prosecuted and the more exactly its results are systematised, 
the more thoroughly is Scripture confirmed. Language is a 
mysterious characteristic of man, and forms an impassable 
barrier between him and the lower animals. No theories of 
evolution or development can displace the marvellousness 
of human speech. Though much in the realm of language 
has perished ; though whole periods in its history have 
irrecoverably gone; yet the mass that remains, both in 
dead and in living languages, is sufficient to tax, for 
generations, the scholarship of Europe and the East. It is 
yet impossible to fix exactly the number of known languages. 
Adelung announced 3064 distinct languages; Balbi 800 
languages and 5000 dialects; and Max Miiller has calculated 
that there are 900 known languages. Their number and 
their prominence may well excite our sympathy with Max 
Miiller, when, in surprise at their long neglect, he says : — 
" Man had studied every part of nature, — the mineral 
treasures in the bowels of the earth, the flowers of each 
season, the animals of every continent, the laws of storms, 
and the movements of the heavenly bodies ; he had 
analysed every substance, dissected every organism ; he 
knew every bone and muscle, every nerve and fibre of his 
own body, to the ultimate elements which compose his flesh 
and blood ; he had meditated on the nature of his soul, on 
the laws of his mind, and tried to penetrate into the last 
causes of all being, — and yet, language, without the aid of 
which not even the first step in this glorious career could 
have been made, remained unnoticed. Like a veil that 



CHAP. VIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS, 131 



hung too close over the eye of the human mind, it was hardly- 
perceived. In an age when the study of antiquity attracted 
the most energetic minds, when the ashes of Pompeii were 
sifted for the playthings of Roman life ; when parchments were 
made to disclose, by chemical means, the erased thoughts of 
Grecian thinkers ; when the tombs of Egypt were ransacked 
for their sacred contents, and the palaces of Babylon and 
Nineveh were forced to surrender the clay diaries of 
Nebuchadnezzar ; when everything, in fact, that seemed to 
contain a vestige of the early life of man was anxiously 
searched for, and carefully preserved in our Libraries and 
Museums, — language, which in itself carries us back far 
beyond the cuneiform literature of Assyria and Babylonia, 
and the hieroglyphic documents of Egypt ; which connects 
ourselves, through an unbroken chain of speech, with the very 
ancestors of our race, and still draws its life from the first 
utterances of the human mind, — language, the living and 
speaking witness of the whole history of our race, was 
never cross-examined by the student of history, was never 
made to disclose its secrets, until questioned, and, so to say, 
brought back to itself, within the last fifty years, by the 
genius of a Humboldt, Bopp, Grimm, Bunsen, and others." 1 
This long neglect is strange \ it is an irremediable loss. 
Be it so ; we are now reaping the fruits of fresh enthusiasm 
and scholarship. The science of Language is not only 
achieving with dead dialects what Geology is tracing in 
fossils, but it is also doing with living languages what Natural 
History is accomplishing among the existent fauna of the 
globe. Like Geology and Astronomy, it has had among its 
earliest efforts to correct its own mistakes, when, like them, 
it had spoken too hastily against the Bible. 

1 " Science of Language," p. 26. 



X$2 BLENDING LIGHTS. [chap. VIII. 

There are certain received conclusions which are confirm- 
atory of the Bible as to one language being the foundation of 
all others, until broken up in confusion at the Tower of Babel. 
The greatest philologists are agreed regarding the classifica- 
tion which reduces all languages to three families, — the Aryan, 
the Semitic, and the Turanian. Under these are grouped 
the chief dialects of Asia, Africa, and Europe ; and although 
the arrangement is confessedly imperfect, it is astonishing to 
find, amid many conflicting surface appearances, so much at 
bottom that is really harmonious. 

Another classification, which has been based on their roots, 
and has reference to their internal structure, does not 
militate against, but rather strengthens, this conclusion. 1 
In an instructive article on the Confusion of Tongues, in 
Smith's " Dictionary of the Bible," there are specified four 
instances in which proofs of unity of language may be found; 
and the writer adds, — " Such a result, though it does not 
prove the unity of language in respect to its radical 
elements, nevertheless tends to establish the a priori proba- 
bility of this unity ; for if all connected with the forms of 
language may be referred to certain general laws, — if nothing 
in that department owes its origin to chance or arbitrary ap- 
pointment, — it surely proves the presumption that the same 
principle would extend to the fonnation of the roots which 
are the very core and kernel of language. Here, too. we 
might expect to find the operation of fixed laws of some kind 
or other producing results of a uniform character ; here, too, 
actual variety may not be inconsistent with original unity." 2 
The inference is fully warranted by what has been ascer- 
tained, that nothing valuable has been added to the substance 

1 "Science of Language," First Series, pp. 254-279. 

2 Smith's "Bible Dictionary" — Art,. Confusion of Tongues. 



CHAP. VIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 133 



of languages, that its changes have been those of form only, 
and that no new root or radical has been invented by later 
generations. The Teutonic languages of Europe, of which 
our vernacular Scotch is part, are illustrated by the language 
of Persia ; the Latin of Italy connects itself with Russian 
idioms ; and Greek with the Sanskrit of India. From 
Ceylon, with its fragrant breezes, to Iceland, with its wintry 
storms, there is, irrespective of form, of colour, of social 
life, and religious institutions, but one belt of language. 
The American tribes in the far West, Humboldt has assured 
us, are indissolubly united to the inhabitants of Asia ; the lan- 
guages of Shem, Ham, and Japhet have a common affinity : 
hills, plains, climates change, but language in its substantial 
elements is really more enduring than the pyramids of Egypt, 
the ruins of Palmyra, or the statues of Greece. 

Klaproth, who has little reverence for the Bible, says, 
"All languages in the world are connected with one origin : 
a universal affinity is completely demonstrated;" and Herder, 
though doubting the inspiration of Moses, is yet decided in 
his belief that the human race and human language go 
back to one source. "All dialects," says the Petersburg 
Academy, "are to be considered as dialects of one now 
lost." 

Max Miiller, who has traced an intimate connection 
between Finnish through the remote north of Europe and 
Tamil in Southern India, has submitted the following con- 
clusion, — " Nothing necessitates the admission of different 
independent beginnings for the material elements of the 
Turanian, Semitic, and Aryan branches of speech ; nay, it is 
possible, even now, to point out radicals, which, under various 
changes and disguises, have been current in these branches 
ever since their first separation." Again, "if inductive 
reasoning is worth anything, we are justified in believing that 



134 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. VIII. 

what has been proved to be true on so large a scale, and in 
cases where it was least expected, is true in regard to lan- 
guage in general . . . We can understand not only the 
origin of language, but likewise the necessary breaking-up of 
one language into many ; and we perceive that no amount 
of variety in the material or the formal elements of speech is 
incompatible with the admission of one common source." 
Inquiry has not exhausted anomalies ; difficulties remain ; 
the Chinese language has not yet been satisfactorily adjusted 
in the range of classification, nor have the rapidly-varying 
dialects of some outlying tribes been definitely assigned their 
place in the chain of connections ; but these do not affect 
the general conclusion to which philological investigation 
has guided scholars. The science has led us to that highest 
and earliest resting-place "whence we can see into the 
very dawn of man's life on earth, and where the words with 
which from childhood we have been familiar, 'And the 
whole earth was of one language, and one speech,' assume 
a meaning more natural and more impressive than they ever 
had before." 1 

3. Tradition. — The traditions which prevail in all lands, 
connect together distant and dissimilar races. 

Omitting those that are less significant or less wide- 
spread, though full of interest notwithstanding, let us refer 
to some of those which have been most distinctly recognised 
in different parts of the world. Outlying and comparatively 
isolated tribes may be found, without traditions of any kind \ 
but these do not affect the argument as drawn from those 

1 For a general view of the whole subject, and for details, also, we 
must refer to the " Science of Language," by Max Midler, First and 
Second Series; to Bopp's "Comparative Grammar of the Sanskrit, 
Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, and other Languages ; " and to 
" Language, and the Study of Language," by Professor W. D, "Whitney. 



CHAP. VIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 135 

traditions which, in different forms, are common to all the 
leading communities in the world. 

(1). The creation of man has its place in the legends of 
Greece, in the beliefs of India, in the cosmogony of Peru, 
and in the traditions of the tribes of North America, of the 
South Sea Islanders, and of the Dyaks of Borneo. 

(2). The Garden of Eden has its counterpart in the City 
of Brahma, as described by the Vishnu Purana ; it has its 
representation also in the Grecian fable regarding the Garden 
of the Hesperides, with which every well-taught school-boy 
is familiar ; and the encircling of the garden by high 
mountains, the golden apples, the mysterious tree, the watchful 
serpent, the destruction of the serpent by Hercules, and the 
relation of Hercules to Jupiter, are obviously suggestive of 
the Scripture narrative. 

(3). The Temptation and the Fall have their record in 
the Greek legend regarding the lovely Pandora, who was 
sent by Jupiter to punish the human race. Yielding to her 
fatal curiosity, she opened the closed box which Prometheus 
had given to her, and diseases and wars sped forth. 

(4). Traditions as to man's innocence, happiness, and 
freedom from disease, as to his having yielded to flattery in 
an evil hour, or to the temptation of a woman, and as to his 
having lost therefore his early intellectual and moral pre- 
eminence, prevailed in China, Thibet, Persia, Ceylon, and 
India. 

(5). The division of Time into weeks has been almost 
universal, and the prevalence of serpent worship has been 
such as to be of itself a strong argument for the unity of the 
race. In Mr. Fergusson's most remarkable work on " Tree 
and Serpent Worship," we have practices described which 
unite Asia, Africa, and Europe. In Madagascar, the 
Friendly Islands, and in various parts of America, the 



136 BLEXDIXG LIGHTS. [CHAP. VIII. 

serpent has been either held in the greatest reverence or 
worshipped. 

(6). There existed traditions of the Deluge in China, India, 
Persia, Egypt, Greece, and the Roman Empire; in the 
scattered islands of the Pacific ; in America — North and 
South; amid the Indian tribes in sunny prairies, and the 
Cree Indians moving amid the enduring snows of the north. 

(7). Sacrifices were offered in the different parts of the 
earth, and among all peoples. Religious rites, sacrificial or 
expiatory, prevailed from Athens to Upsal, from Egypt to 
China, from one section of America to another. 

These traditions, of which we have given only a very 
general outline, constitute a cumulative argument in favour 
of one race, which cannot be ignored or set aside. Their 
prevalence is utterly inexplicable, except through the Bible 
narrative. On its basis alone can we so adjust the facts of 
science, and the common traditions of dissimilar races, as to 
realise perfectly harmonious results. 

4. Mental and Moral Endowments. 

Even those who accept the Darwinian theory in whole or 
in part, admit that the intellectual and moral superiority of 
man is such as to separate him from all other creatures. 
"Whatever differences of opinion may exist regarding man's 
physical relations to the lower animals, there is none in re- 
ference to his intellectual and moral superiority. 

In the language of Scripture, man is made " in the image of 
God." The description is singular, to define a singular result. 
Man's standard is not of earth, his aspirations are upward ; 
he has elements in his spiritual nature which separate him 
from the world he dwells in. The Bible makes no limitation, 
and draws no distinction. As we have already explained, 
God made man capable of knowing, reasoning, and loving. 
While the body demands food, the mind seeks truth. It 



CHAP. VIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 137 



thirsts for knowledge ; hence, it is said of man, by the Great 
Teacher, that, in the highest sense, he " shall not live by 
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the 
mouth of God/' l There is, further, a consciousness of 
right and wrong. He has a discriminating and distinguish- 
ing power. Perverted in its uses it may be, but still it works. 
There is also a moral faculty. Conscience may slumber or 
be inactive, but the power is there to be acted on. In his 
most sunken state, he has a capacity for religion. He can 
be taught to look to God, and to a home in the Unseen. 
On these plain truths we need not dwell ; the question 
which connects itself with them is, admitting these facts, 
are they so present in all races as to prove them one in 



origin? 



American controversialists, compelled by anatomy and 
physiology to give up the idea of difference of origin as 
dependent on man's physical structure, spent their energies 
in the attempt to prove that the negro race was not only 
intellectually inferior, but morally unimprovable. They de- 
nounced him as devoid of feeling, weak in intellect, and 
defective in moral principle ; but their proof has completely 
failed. Tried by tests common among ourselves, the negro 
disproves their assertions. 

Negroes have shown all the qualities of our emotional 
nature. Unexpected circumstances produce surprise or as- 
tonishment, and unexplained events, wonder; the beautiful 
evokes admiration, and the sublime, awe; kindness lights the 
eye with gratitude, and the amusing creates laughter; sorrow 
bedews the cheek with tears, and bitter remorse follows the 
memory of a crime or a wrong. These emotions and these 
moral influences bind us all together. "Indeed," says an ac- 

1 Matthew iv. 4. 



138 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. VIII. 

curate observer, "the feelings of the negro are extremely acute. 
According to the way in which they are treated, they are 
gay or melancholy, laborious or slothful, enemies or friends. 
The throb of manly affection, and the tear of brotherly 
sympathy, — a glittering gem on a swarthy cheek, — are of 
themselves touches of nature making us all one." 

Their intellectuality, also, has been denied. Ignorance 
and degradation are the facts adduced in proof; but history 
vindicates their title to great mental resources. Has not 
the Ethiopic race left traces of its prowess not only in Africa, 
but in Central Asia? Debased and sunken tribes in 
swampy regions, it is true, fringe the Atlantic coast; but 
they are exceptional. Inland, the tribes are intelligent and 
powerful. 1 Try even the lowest of the negro tribes, and 
what will they not accomplish ; give them scope, and they 
will show the ordinary results of civilisation. Dr. Hamilton 
of Mobile, whose opportunities of observation were very 
extensive, has said, " That there is, in comparison with the 
white, any essential inferiority of intellect native to the negro, 
the observation and experience of nearly thirty years of 
familiar intercourse with whites and with blacks, as a minister 
of religion, would never lead him to believe. A difference 
there certainly is in the intellectual character, as well as in 
the physical organisations of the two races ; but a decided 
and essential inferiority of the one to the other, in point of 
intellect, he cannot discern." 2 

Of their skill as carpenters and watchmakers, of their 
taste in drawing, of their musical talents, of their capacity 
in physical and mathematical science, many proofs might be 
given from the writings of those who have had opportunities 

1 The late despatches of Dr. Livingstone have proved beyond question 
what was before in part maintained. 

s " The Pentateuch and its Assailants," p. 319. 



CHAP. VIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 139 

of personal observation. Blumenbach has declared that 
entire provinces of Europe might be named in which it 
would be most difficult to find in correspondents of the 
French Academy such good writers, poets, and philosophers, 
as some of them. 

( 1 ). All men have a higher power than intellect, — they have 
conscience. While Intellect and Will, separating man from 
all beneath, make him a person, Conscience makes him 
moral and responsible ; it gives the idea of right and wrong, 
and is the basis of natural law. It does not affect the 
argument to say that a common standard in different tribes 
and nations has not been found, and that moral judgments 
therefore differ. It is enough that there is any standard. 
The most debased criminals in our land, who have set law 
at defiance, calculate on trial and justice. The most sunken 
races have their rude way of settling disputes. "The 
principles on which men reason in morals," says Hume, 
" are the same, though their conclusions be different." 

(2). All races have capacity for the higher exercises of 
religion. It is not necessary to enter into the dispute as to 
some tribes being destitute or not of every idea of even a 
remotely religious kind; the question is, Have they capacity 
for religious teaching and a religious life ? No one who has 
denied this has given proof of his assertion. Experience 
alone can substantiate such opinions. Christian missionaries 
have never yet told us of an irreclaimable and unimprovable 
tribe. That differences exist in aptitude of intellectual and 
moral culture, every one admits. They are common in all 
civilised nations, as well as among savage tribes ; but races 
the most sunken and debased have been uplifted and refined. 
Culture cannot, and does not, impart a single intellectual 
and moral force not originally existent in man, but it evolves 
forces, however long-neglected and dormant ; and their ap- 



140 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. VIII. 

pearance constitutes a new testimony to the unity of our 
race. To these, and similar results, we shall more fully 
advert when we have to consider the bearing of the Gospel 
message on the human race. 

(3). Another peculiarity, common to all races, meets us in 
the fact that there is naturally no love of the Creator by the 
Creature, nor gratitude by the constantly upheld to the 
Upholder. Is it not strange that man should everywhere 
fear, and not love, God ? Is it not unnatural that, while 
thankful to his fellow-creature for kindness, man should be 
unthankful to his God, and unmindful of Him, except when 
compelled by uneasiness of conscience to honour Him by a 
routine of external observances ? There is only one explan- 
ation, and that is, a universal opposition to the holiness of a 
loving and merciful Father. There is a sense of depravity, 
there is a feeling of wrongness, and there is, consequently, 
the gloom of fear where there should be the glow and the 
confidence of love. Powerful as is this darkening influence, 
Natural "Science cannot discover nor deal with it. " It lies 
where the tests of chemistry cannot detect, nor the knife of 
the anatomist reach it, nor the eye of the physiognomist dis- 
cern, nor the instrument of the phrenologist measure it. It 
lies in the depth of the soul, and comes out in the remark- 
able fact that, while all the hues of the skin differ, and the 
forms of the skull and the features of the face are cast in dif- 
ferent moulds, the features, character, and colour of the heart 
are the same in all. Be he pale-faced or red, tawny or 
black, Jew, Greek, Scythian, bond or free, whether he be the 
civilised inhabitant of Europe or roam a painted savage in 
American woods, pant beneath the burning sun, or, wrapt 
in furs, shiver amid the Arctic shores (as in all classes of 
society, so in all races of men), " the heart is deceitful above 
all things, and desperately wicked;" "the carnal mind is 



CHAP. VIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 141 

enmity against God." The pendulum vibrates slower at the 
equator than the pole ; the farther north we push our way 
over thick-ribbed ice, the faster goes the clock ; but parallels 
of latitude have no modifying influences on the motions of 
the heart. It beats the same in all men, nor till repaired by 
grace does it in any way beat true to God." 1 

In bodily structure, in language, in tradition, and in in- 
tellectual, moral, and religious character, we find abundant 
evidence to prove unity of race ; and there is the amplest 
confirmation of it in the character and extent of the Gospel 
or Christian scheme. It assumes unity, and it comes with 
a free, full, universal message. The Great Teacher and 
Redeemer drew no distinction, — "Go ye, therefore, and 
teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching 
them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded 
you." 2 The message is for all ; it is everywhere needed ; 
teaching is to be the process, and all are assumed to be 
capable of instruction and obedience. The doctrine of 
diversity of origin, and of distinct and lower races, is incon- 
sistent, not only with the facts and principles of different 
sciences, but with the direct teachings of Christianity. 



1 Dr. Guthrie. "The Gospel in Ezekiel," pp. 40, 41 ; abridged. 1863. 
2 Matthew xxviii. 19, 20. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Were our First Parents Savages ? — Recent Theories as to the 
Origin of Civilisation considered in Relation to Scrip- 
ture and History. 

" Even if we had not Revelation to guide us, it would be most 
unphilosophical to attempt to trace back the history of man, without 
taking into account the most remarkable facts of his nature, — the facts of 
civilisation, arts, government, speech, his traditions, his internal wants, 
his intellectual, moral, and religious constitution. If we will attempt 
such a retrospect, we must look at all these things as evidence of the 
origin and end of man's being ; and when we do thus comprehend in 
one view the whole of the argument, it is impossible for us to arrive at 
an origin homogeneous with the present order of things." — Professor 
Whewell. 

WHAT was man's primeval condition ? Were our first 
parents savages? Are we descended from "some 
creature not worthy to be called a man " ? Is civilisation 
the commencement of human history, or its close ? Is it a 
natural evolution of savage life, or is it dependent for its 
origin and growth on influences external to man ? Is it ever 
flowing and ebbing within definite and ascertainable limits ? 
Does it reach a maximum only again to sink, or is it carrying 
with every apparently fitful advance the elements of expan- 
sion and of ultimate stability? These are questions which 
the eager thinking of the age is forcing upon us, and com- 
pelling us to answer. Repeated discussions in meetings of 
the British Association for the Promotion of Science ; elabor- 
ate works, such as those by Darwin, Spencer, Wallace, Sir 
John Lubbock, and Tylor ; and powerful articles in our serial 



CHAP. IX.] BLENDING LIGHTS, M3 



literature ; show the importance that is attached to this sub- 
ject, and represent facts and inferences which, be our belief 
what it may, ought not to be summarily rejected. They 
claim a sifting, yet candid, examination ; and we should be 
able, on the basis of science and history, as well as on that 
of Scripture, to found reliable conclusions regarding the origin 
and progress of civilisation. 

The discussion has not been satisfactorily prosecuted, 
because of the want of agreement as to the constituent 
elements of barbarism and civilisation. Wherein lies the 
difference ? — What line separates the two ? — How low must 
a man sink to become a savage ? — How high must he rise 
to be ranked among the civilised? — What kind and what 
amount of knowledge may be held sufficient to separate the 
civilised from the savage ? — Of what mechanical appliances 
must he be capable, what intellectual resources must he 
command, and what moral and religious sentiments must 
influence or control his life ? — are questions which have not 
yet been definitely answered. No attempt has been made 
to give a scientific definition of either barbarism or civilisa- 
tion, and the consequence is a prevailing haziness in all the 
reasoning which we have been constrained to follow. Sir 
John Lubbock has not made the attempt ; nor did Arch- 
bishop Whately ; nor has the Duke of Argyll, although in his 
" Primeval Man " he has specified this very defect. In his 
late work, Sir John Lubbock has distinctly refused to give 
any definition. " In truth," he says, " it would be impossible 
in a few words to define the complex organisation which we 
call civilisation, or to state in a few words how a civilised 
differs from a barbarous people. Indeed, to define civilisa- 
tion as it should be, is surely as yet impossible, since we are 
far indeed from having solved the problem how we may 
best avail ourselves of our opportunities, and enjoy the 



144 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. IX. 

beautiful world in which we live." x We are disappointed 
by this excuse. In a discussion of this kind, involving so 
much that is of vital interest, it is impossible to proceed in 
safety without some first principles as our guide, and some 
end or object as our goal. Without these, we grope through 
mists, and are distracted by different standards. M. Guizot, 
in his well-known " History of Civilisation in Europe," has 
recognised the importance of distinct ideas as to the meaning 
of the term, and has elaborately stated what are those con- 
ditions of society which, in his view, represent civilisation. 
Although he does not give a scientific definition, he states 
with such clearness, descriptively and hypothetically, what 
individual, social, and political interests are embraced by it, 
that we can read with ease and comfort his truly philo- 
sophic discussion ; and even when we do not accept his 
conclusions, we are prepared to admit how harmoniously 
they fit into the descriptive hypothesis which he gave at the 
commencement. While his work has a different basis from 
that of Sir John Lubbock, and a less comprehensive aim, it 
illustrates the close philosophic treatment which the subject 
must yet receive in the new relations in which it has of late 
been discussed. 

The refusal of Sir John Lubbock to state what, even in 
a general or comprehensive sense, are the distinguishing 
features of the civilisation regarding which he writes with such 
fulness, is unsatisfactory. It leaves everything in confusion. 
Let it be understood that it is not a logical definition of 
civilisation as it should be, nor any explanation of its 
material effects as they now appear, which we desiderate, 
but unambiguous references to such principles in mental 
and moral life as should control material results without 

1 " On the Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of Man," 
P- 339- 



CHAP. IX.] BLENDING LIGHTS. MS 

being absolutely dependent on them. It does not avail to 
say that it is " impossible/' because we have not "solved 
the problem how we may best avail ourselves of the oppor- 
tunities and enjoy the beautiful world we live in." On what 
does this enjoyment depend ? On material acts, with the 
luxuries they bring? — or on mental and moral resources 
without them ? — or on both ? It is surely not too much to 
expect from one who undertakes to explain to us "the origin 
of civilisation/' that he state in what sense he uses this term, 
and how much it implies in relation at least to those facts 
which he describes. There are surely some first principles 
which, operating in society, create civilisation ; or there are 
at least some facts which, when they do appear, determine 
its necessary conditions. 

As the opinions which have of late been thus influentially 
promulgated, would, if correct, not only render the Bible un- 
worthy of acceptance, even as a historical document, but dis- 
place the whole Christian system as a Force elevating and 
refining the human race, it is incumbent on all to examine, 
with the greatest care, the reasoning by which their conclu- 
sions are supported. We therefore propose to examine the 
subject, — First, generally, in its relation to the Bible and to 
History ; and Second, more minutely, in its relation to the 
Mental Faculties, the Moral Sense or Conscience, and 
Religion. 

I. — Recent Theories in Relation to the Bible. 

Although we do not meet in the Bible with the term 
" civilisation," nor with any formal delineation of that com- 
plex social organisation which the word now implies, we 
have the principles clearly defined and the duties firmly 
enforced on which its origin, growth, and stability depend. 
They are moral rather than intellectual, and spiritual rather 
than material. 



1 46 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. IX. 

Apart altogether from the question of inspiration, and 
assuming the Scriptural record to be not less worthy of ac- 
ceptance as a mere history, or as suggesting a theory, than 
are those statements in books of travel which have been so 
lavishly used, we may fairly enough refer to the view which 
it gives of the origin of civilisation, and claim for it respectful 
consideration. It expressly states that " man was created 
in the image of God," — that is, that he was not only intellec- 
tually but morally great ; — that he acted from holy motives ; 
— that, in his highest and most ennobling vocation, — in fellow- 
ship or communion with the Being whose spiritual image he 
bore, — he had an exhaustless source of true happiness. By 
the spirit, human character is to be determined, and not by 
the industrial or the fine arts, nor by any external details 
whatever ; these may shed light on the general attainments 
of a community in certain directions, but there may be a 
large amount of civilisation without as well as with them. 
This depends on the possession of certain distinct ideas 
of man's relations to God and to his fellowmen. Let him 
but know that "God is, and that he is the rewarder of 
them that diligently seek him," and the external circum- 
stances will gradually adjust themselves to expanding 
secular knowledge in both its principles and their applica- 
tions. The civilisation of our first parents, in its relation to 
this knowledge, was very high ; but in its relation to me- 
chanical art it was at the outset necessarily very low, — as 
low, probably, as can be conceived. It is not required for 
our argument to infer, with Archbishop Whately, that God 
taught them any mechanical arts. He gave them quick per- 
ceptions, ready and accurate reasoning power, and conse- 
quently facility of application, according to the exigencies of 
their life. And this is all that was necessary, in our subse- 
quently changed condition, for the origin of those complicated 



CHAP. IX.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 147 

arrangements which are summarised by the term civilisation. 
In clearly defined ideas of the being and character of the 
Deity, in a sense of dependence on God, in the conscious- 
ness of needed forgiveness and acceptance, and in the 
recognition of the claims upon us of our brother man, we 
have the basis of a permanent civilisation. Nations that 
have risen to greatness, and been deemed civilised, reached 
their commanding height only through the measure of truth 
which they held even in partially distorted forms; but 
empires perished when at last the truth was wholly lost. 

False religions can live only by the truth which vitalises 
them, and national histories are continued only on the same 
conditions. The splendour of Egypt, Chaldsea, Persia, 
Greece, Rome, evanished in gloom only when almost every 
moral principle had been buried in corruption; and national 
resuscitation became possible only through a restoration 
from without of vitalising and controlling truths. 

All this is assumed in the Bible. It does not formally 
expound the conditions of civilisation. Its descriptions and 
its precepts take for granted this recognition of moral prin- 
ciples by both individuals and nations. Men may read the 
Bible and miss this somewhat subtle pervading force, or they 
may detect and feel it from the outset. A thoughtful 
American writer has thus referred to this difference : — " The 
things in which an elevated social economy reveals itself 
to political wisdom, are not at all obtrusive upon the 
foreground of Scriptural thought. Wealth, art, litera- 
ture, science, urbanity of manners, domestic comfort, 
institutions of charity, free governments, — these are not 
the salient themes here, either of argument or of promise. 
A reformer might study pages of this volume, covering 
a thousand years of history, and not discover that in- 
spired minds ever thought of any such sort of thing ; yet a 



148 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. IX. 

wise man, instructed in God's wisdom, may traverse the 
same ground, and so discern the gravitating of principles 
towards social results as almost to imagine that inspired 
minds thought of nothing else." 1 

Eastern nations retaining some such truths as we have 
referred to, represent, in varied forms, a civilisation different 
from that of Western nations. Of them all it may be said 
that they are fixed • their modes of thought, their manners, 
their arts, their superstitions, are cast in unvarying moulds, 
which must be broken to give the freedom which brightens 
the West ; and the Bible, with its varied truth and impelling 
force, is the one power, we believe, which is destined to do 
it. What it is doing in Western nations, it will do for 
Eastern. When it is studied, and is accepted as a regulating 
book, it will speedily accomplish what neither commerce and 
peaceful intercourse, nor the turmoil of war, can ever achieve. 
The truth shall make these nations free in spirit and free in 
the introduction and enjoyment of the useful and ornamental 
arts. The Bible alone is the fontal civilising force in the 
world, and is gradually changing the historical character of 
our race. 

The chief defect in the expositions of recent theorists is 
their omission to record the influences of Bible truth, and 
those revolutions in feeling, thought, and outward life which 
Christianity has so strikingly accomplished. As historical 
elements, these are incomparably more worthy of acknow- 
ledgment than many of the traditions and customs which 
they delineate with such earnest diligence and care. And 
not until all the more prominent intellectual and moral 
results which Christianity is evolving are taken into account, 



1 Lecture by Rev. Austin Phelp, D.D. Boston Lectures. " Chris- 
tianity and Scepticism," p. 38. 187 1. 



CHAP. IX.]. BLENDING LIGHTS. 149 

as well as the peculiar phenomena of barbarism, can we 
have an approach to such a philosophic discussion of the 
whole subject as its vital importance demands. 

This, so far, is mere assertion, but so also is the statement 
on the other side, that we are descended from some creature 
not worthy to be called a man, and that the whole complex 
system of modern civilisation has been slowly evolved from 
some creature without a single idea in its head. It is asser- 
tion against assertion we admit, with this important difference, 
however, that we include in our system the facts of Christi- 
anity as processes in history. But let the opposite views be 
as fully stated as possible in support of 

II. — The Recent Theories in Relation to History. 

Sunken as are the Fuegians and Bosjesmen, they are not 
low enough for our supposed origin. The ordinary term 
savage does not carry us far enough back in history, nor far 
enough down in the scale of being, for that dishonouring 
origin which has been assigned to us. Whether that creature 
not worthy to be called a man was below or above the ape 
and the gorilla, does not clearly appear. Our parentage is 
uncertain. The beings with which or with whom our race 
began, are represented as but one remove from irrational 
animals. Man's instincts, intelligence, reason, habits, are so 
near those of the lower animals, that it is difficult to separate 
them ; and from such a beginning, they tell us, have arisen 
the intellect, the reason, the science, the arts, and the 
prospects of this nineteenth century. 

The various stages in the long process have been artificially 
marked. The prehistoric ages have been divided into 
indefinite periods, dependent for their distinction on the 
chief materials used in war, or for agricultural and domestic 
purposes. These periods, representing advancing stages in 
civilisation, are, according to Sir John Lubbock, (i), the 



150 BLENDING LIGHTS. [chap. IX. 

Paleolithic — that is, the old-stone period, when men used 
and could use only rough stones; (2), the Neolithic, or new- 
stone period, when men had taste and skill enough to polish 
their stone implements and make flint-headed weapons ; 
(3), the Bronze period, when armour and cutting instruments 
of every sort were made of bronze ; and (4), the Iron period, 
when the instruments and implements of former ages have 
given place generally to those of iron, and represent chiefly 
the civilisation of the century in which we live. 

We do not object to this division, — it has a certain degree 
of historical appositeness, — but we deny that there is evi- 
dence adequate to prove that man has gradually passed 
through them all upward to the highest pinnacles of the 
present age. But let us follow the theory. 

The process of growth or expansion has been variously 
described, but by none with greater succinctness and felicity 
than by the late Archbishop YVhately. Although holding an 
opposite conclusion, he does full justice to the reasoning of 
his opponents : — 

" It was long commonly taken for granted, not only by 
writers among the ancient heathens, but by modern authors, 
that the savage state was the original one, and that mankind, 
or some portion of mankind, gradually raised themselves 
from it by the unaided exercise of their own faculties. . . . 
You may hear plausible descriptions given of a supposed 
race of savages subsisting on wild fruits, herbs, and roots, 
and on the precarious supplies of hunting and fishing ; and 
then, of the supposed process by which they emerged from 
this state, and gradually invented the various arts of life, till 
they became a decidedly civilised people. One man, it has 
been supposed, wishing to save himself the trouble of roam- 
ing through the woods in search of wild plants and roots, 
would bethink himself of collecting the seeds of these, and 



CHAP. IX.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 15 1 

cultivating them in a plot of ground cleared and broken up 
for the purpose. And finding that he could thus raise more 
than enough for himself, he might agree with some of his 
neighbours to exchange a part of his produce for some of the 
game or fish taken by them. Another man, again, it has 
been supposed, would contrive to save himself the labour and 
uncertainty of hunting, by catching some kind of wild animals 
alive and keeping them in an enclosure to breed, that he 
might have a supply always at hand. And, again, others, it 
is supposed, might devote themselves to the occupation of 
dressing skins for clothing, or of building huts or canoes, or 
of making bows and arrows, or various kinds of tools, each 
exchanging his productions with his neighbours for food. 
And each, by devoting his attention to some one kind of 
manufacture, would acquire increased skill in that, and would 
strike out new inventions. 

" And then, these supposed savages having in this way 
become divided into husbandmen, shepherds, and artizans 
of several kinds, would begin to enjoy the various advantages 
of division of labour, and would advance step by step in all 
the arts of civilised life." 1 

This statement, in so far as it relates to the gradual 
division of labour, may be accepted as probably correct ; 
but the question at issue is not, whence the savage ? that 
has been already discussed by us, but, supposing the savage 
existent, whence these processes ? — from natural impulses or 
intuitions, or from external teachings by a higher tribe? 
" They cannot be originated by savages," says the one party. 
" They can be originated by no other," say their opponents. 

" Such descriptions as the above," says Whately, " of 
what is supposed has actually taken place, or of what 

1 " Exeter Hall Lectures," pp. 9-1 1, 1854,1855, James Nisbet & Co. 



IS 2 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. IX. 

possibly might take place, are likely to appear plausible; 
but, on close examination, their suppositions are found to be 
completely at variance with history, and inconsistent with 
the character of real savages. Such a process of invention 
and improvement as that just described, is whfct we may 
safely say never did and never can possibly take place in 
any tribe of savages left wholly to themselves." 

Without committing ourselves to the strong affirmation 
that such a " process never can possibly take place," it is 
enough to inquire whether any such process has ever been 
known to have taken place among " savages left wholly 
to themselves." In that " left wholly to themselves," lies 
the essential difference between the two systems or theories 
of civilisation. 

Sir John Lubbock and the ethnologists whom he repre- 
sents, have set themselves to prove the opposite of Whately's 
conclusion, and both their scholarship and character entitle 
their opinions to the best consideration of every student. 

Leaving out of view, in the meantime, the teachings of 
Scripture, let us test their theory on its own merits, and 
endeavour to judge of it on the basis of history and science, 
as we should do in the case of any theory not running 
counter to any cherished belief or tradition. 

Two questions, at this stage, suggest themselves ; — first, 
Is the test or standard adopted sufficient to determine the 
difference between barbarism and civilisation? — and, second, 
Suppose the standard accepted, do the facts of history 
establish their theory? 

The standard is unsuitable. Fundamentally, the theory 
is erroneous, for the following among other reasons : — 

i. It is defective, in making the industrial and me- 
chanical arts alone the standard by which to test degrees 
pf civilisation. It is difficult, we admit, to find a common 



CHAP. IX.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 153 

test \ but the one adopted, though in many respects good, 
is so inadequate in important particulars, that it cannot 
warrant comprehensive conclusions. The theory fails to 
recognise personal culture apart from its mere material ex- 
pression, and therein lies a fatal weakness; for high culture 
and many of the aspirations and sympathies of comparatively 
refined life, may subsist amid the very rudest industrial arts. 
Measured by the marvellous attainments of this Iron-period 
of ours, the ages of Homer and Herodotus would be gloomily 
barbarous. Had their writings been lost ; had the " Iliad " 
of the one and the history of the other — productions to 
which our best British scholars and statesmen have given 
so much of their leisure and cultivated thought — never been 
heard of; and had only the rude remains of these early 
times come to us in some loose fragments ; we should have 
been resting in utterly erroneous conclusions regarding both 
the period and the people. 

" No proof, if proof there be, that primeval man was 
ignorant of the industrial arts, can afford the smallest 
presumption that he was also ignorant of duty, or ignorant 
of God. This is a fundamental objection to the whole scope 
of Sir John Lubbock's argument. It interposes an impass- 
able gulf between his premises and his conclusion." * This 
objection Sir J. Lubbock has attempted to obviate, but with- 
out success. While we can acknowledge gradual advance 
from lower to higher degrees of skill in mechanical arts, 
without admitting that any one stage of art necessarily 
represents finer feelings, nobler thoughts, and a more 
generous or holier life than the other, he and others are 
so restricted by a narrow theory, that they cannot include 
all the facts of intellectual and moral life. 

1 "Man, Primeval," by the Duke of Argyll, p. 132, 



154 BLENDING LIGHTS. [chap. IX. 

The ancient Germans, Gauls, and Britons, as described 
by Caesar and Tacitus, were savages ; yet they "cultivated 
their land, kept cattle, employed horses in their wars, and 
made use of metals for their weapons and instruments." 
They had some of the commonest evidences of civilisation, 
and we are not in circumstances to estimate fairly their 
personal culture, but we may infer that it was even higher 
than these evidences indicate. 

If we make industrial arts alone the test of civilisation in 
Scotland and England, we should arrive at most erroneous 
conclusions regarding even comparatively recent times. And 
were we, indeed, at this moment, to estimate the character 
of the people in some districts of the Highlands of Scotland 
by their dwellings, their agriculture, and their simple habits, 
we should completely misunderstand and wrong them. We 
should possibly represent as ignorant and barbarous, numbers 
of the most intelligent of our countrymen, and, viewed in 
the light of morality and religion, the most civilised of the 
British Empire, because their dwellings are the abodes of 
truth, and honour, and piety. Though their hamlets or 
clachans may be little better than a series of architectural 
hovels, the inmates are notwithstanding brave, courteous, 
and refined ; they need not the dramas of Shakespeare or 
the epics of Milton to give them their share of the common 
splendours of their country ; for while they may have these, 
they have, besides, that higher lustre which is invariably 
diffused by the Psalms of David; the blending poetry, 
prophecy, and theology of Isaiah; the narratives of the 
Evangelists ; and the doctrines of the Great Teacher who 
spake truth as never man spake it. 

2. The theory is defective also in not making sufficient 
allowance for the co-existence of barbarism and civilisation 
at the same period in different parts of the world. Facts 



CHAP. IX.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 155 

gathered in a single narrow district, or in contiguous 
territories, have been made the basis of plausible inference 
and the source of elaborate proof, when the facts of distant 
"territories and corresponding periods would have shown 
other processes and another result. When Caesar, for 
example, was carrying his triumphs onward to Britain, 
through the comparatively rude dwellings of Gaul, splendid 
palaces glittered in Eastern Empires j and long before his 
time, when Egypt, Assyria, and Persia were powerful in their 
military equipment and refined in their Art, savage tribes 
hovered on their verge, or wandered in distant regions. 

While we find in the history of the world, contemporane- 
ously, in different kingdoms, the art evidences of barbarism 
and civilisation, we have them no less distinctly co-existent 
in the same district or kingdom. They are not connected as 
growth, part with part. Vases, cylinders, and engraved signets 
have been discovered, mingling with knives of flint or chert, 
stone hatchets, hammers, nails, and adzes. In Mexico and 
other parts of America, the facts of a high civilisation ante- 
date those of ignorance and degradation. Periods so com- 
mingle facts which should on this theory lie ages apart, that 
reasoning founded on their historical sequence must be 
received with the greatest hesitation and care. 

3. It is perfectly clear, judging from facts in the present 
age, that emigrants from civilised communities may have 
speedily lapsed into barbarism. The industrial arts of 
Britain are high ; but how many wanderers, leaving their 
homes and the refinement of their country, may betake them- 
selves to distant regions without the least fitness to introduce 
any of either the mechanical or the fine arts ? How few, 
comparatively, of our emigrating families know anything 
whatever of those industrial agencies which have made their 
country great ; or, if they knew them, could turn them to 



I5 6 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. IX. 

practical account. Skilled artizans would soon find their 
experience valueless ; and with the first generation the 
refinements of another land and an early home would dis- 
appear ; and thus might a savage race have its origin or first" 
roots in no ordinary civilisation. That both prehistoric and 
historic times have seen such changes, cannot be doubted. 
" Even now," says Wilson, " the skill of the American miner 
has to be imported, and the copper miners of Lake Superior 
are almost exclusively derived from Cornwall, or the mining 

districts of Germany The old Dutchman exported 

his bricks across the Atlantic, wherewith to found 4iis new 
Amsterdam on the banks of the Hudson ; and the English 
colonist, with enterprise enough to mine the copper veins of 
Lake Superior, still seeks a market for the ore in England, 
and imports from thence both the engineers and the iron 
wherewith to bridge his St. Lawrence." After adverting to 
the migration of Asiatic tribes, he adds, — " Their industrial 
arts were all to begin anew; and thus, wherever we 
recover traces of the first footprints of the old Nomad 
in his wanderings .across the Continents of Asia and 
Europe, .... we find that the Stone period is not 
necessarily the earliest human period, but only the rudi- 
mentary condition to which man had returned, or may 
return again, in the inevitable deterioration of a migratory 
era." 1 Such processes and such results have, doubtless, 
often come and gone. Although skilled races in prehistoric 
ages have not left us art fabrics or other products to indicate 
their degree of civilisation, and emigrating bands cannot 
stamp- on distant regions the material impress of that civilisa- 
tion from which they departed, both have been real, and 
brought into the solitudes of their chosen abodes the refined 

1 "Prehistoric Man," by Daniel Wilson, vol. I,, pp. 143, 144. 



CHAP. IX.] B LENDING LIGHTS. 157 

feelings and the social intercourse of their early homes. 
This refinement no art structure or fabric could embody or 
represent ; but in a generation or two it would probably 
be completely lost, although, in some instances, it may have 
run for centuries through patriarchal tribes of olden times, 
and not a trace of their intellectual vigour, and moral worth, 
and kindliest sympathies can now be found. 

It is only by a comprehensive and careful survey of the facts 
which Asia and America, as well as Europe, are giving, that 
any reliable conclusions can be gained. The attention has 
hitherto been too exclusively fixed on European evidences 
or facts, while the key to the interpretation of the whole 
has been lying for ages in the East. In short, this classifica- 
tion of Periods, while very convenient, and in some respects 
just, is so devoid of scientific accuracy that it cannot be 
accepted as the basis of conclusions regarding the whole 
human family. It demands special geographical and physical 
conditions for the start of the first human pair, without which 
the first two periods — the Palaeolithic and the Neolithic — 
might form no distinctive part of human history. There are, 
for instance, vast territories in which stones are as scarce as 
in others metals are rare. South American tribes have been 
thrilled into ecstasies by finding pebbles ; and in the wide 
alluvial plains of Chaldaea, stones are not available for 
common nnplements. If, in some such districts as these, 
the first pair and their successors had run their history, the 
stone-age probably could not have been known, as those 
who wandered into stone districts should have made such 
progress as to dispense with them, at least in their rough 
and unhewn state. Men living in a comparatively stoneless 
territory, like that of Mesopotamia, may indeed possess those 
qualities of a high civilisation which, though but very slightly 
visible in mechanical arts, may yet go forth in genial public 



158 BLENDING LIGHTS. [chap. IX. 

combinations, in kindly companionship, elevated thought, 
and religious observances. 

Again, it has, curiously enough, been concluded by Sir 
John Lubbock that savages do not sink ; that they rise, but 
do not fall back. "It is a common opinion," he says, 
"that savages are, as a general rule, only the miserable 
remnants of nations once more civilised ; but although there 
are some well-established cases of national decay, there is no 
scientific evidence which would justify us in asserting that 
this is generally the case. No doubt there are many 
instances in which nations, once progressive, have not only 
ceased to advance in civilisation, but have even fallen back. 
Still, if we compare the accounts of early travellers with the 
state of things now existing, we shall find no evidence of 
any general degradation. The Australians, Bushmen, and 
Fuegians lived, when first observed, almost exactly as they 
do now. In some savage tribes we even find some traces 
of improvement ; the Bachapins, when visited by Burchell, 
had just introduced the art of working in iron ; the largest 
erection in Tahiti was constructed by the generation living 
at the time of Captain Cook's visit ; and the practice of 
cannibalism had been recently abandoned ; again, out- 
riggers are said to have been recently adopted by the 
Andaman Islanders ; and if certain races — as, for instance, 
some of the American tribes — have fallen back, this has 
perhaps been due, less to any inherent tendency, than to the 
injurious effect of European influence. Moreover, if the 
Cape of Good Hope, Australia, New Zealand, &c, had ever 
been inhabited by a race of men more advanced than those 
whom we are in the habit of regarding as the aborigines, 
some evidence of this would surely have remained ; and 
this not being the case, none of our travellers having 
observed any ruins, or other traces of advanced civilisation, 



CHAP. IX.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 159 

there does not appear to be any sufficient reason for suppos- 
ing these miserable beings to be at all inferior to the ancestors 
from whom they are descended/' 1 

It would not be an easy task to find a single passage in 
which assumptions, unsustained by the slender facts adduced, 
are made the chief support of a generalisation so sweeping 
as that savages do not sink ; and, indirectly of the inference, 
that, without external aid, they rise. Sir John finds in the 
accounts of early travellers, as compared with the present 
state of things, no evidence of any general degradation ; but 
the fact is, that those to whom he refers — the Australians, 
the Bushmen, and the Fuegians — cannot sink lower without 
disappearing altogether. Should they not, on this theory, 
be ere now showing tendencies upwards ? He quotes the 
Bachapins, Tahitians, and Andaman Islanders, as giving 
some evidences of improvement ; but he cannot prove, what 
is specially needed in the discussion, that they were not 
visited by some who introduced improvements, or that they 
had not received some stray traveller who stimulated them 
to new exertions. Admitting that there might be occasional 
movements somewhat in advance of sheer barbarism, they 
are not sufficient to counterbalance all the facts which prove 
sameness in savage life. His connecting the degradation 
and decay of American tribes with European influences, is a 
mere assumption. If the germ of progress really exists in 
savage life, contact with a civilised race should quicken it, 
and give it scope. His inference that, if the miserable 
aborigines of the Cape of Good Hope, Australia, and New 
Zealand had ever superior ancestors, traces of their existence 
should be found, is altogether unwarranted ; for it is quite 
possible, as we have already shown, that those who have 

1 " Prehistoric Man," pp. 337, 338. First Edition. 



160 BLEXDIXG LIGHTS. [CHAP. IX. 

emigrated from civilised communities, and have carried with 
them to desolate or unpeopled regions a knowledge of some 
of the arts, might soon lose them, because inapplicable, or, 
in their new circumstances, useless ; and in a generation or 
two the families would be found, in harmony with the re- 
sources of their country, subsisting like savages, dependent 
on fruits, on fishing, on hunting, or occupying a somewhat 
higher sphere as keepers of sheep or cattle. Nothing, in all 
probability, has been more common in the past, than that 
two or three families having been swept from the civilisation 
of Asia to some of the neighbouring islands or more distant 
continents, and having been cut off from all intercourse with 
their parent community 7 , should leave behind them as suc- 
cessors, those who, in a generation or two, would roam ex- 
ultantly in the wild freedom of the savage. To expect traces 
of early civilisation in such outlying regions, is contrary to 
the probabilities of history, and shows to what weak reason- 
ing a theorist will have recourse, even when he, distinguished 
by merit, is accomplished and independent; but to expect 
traces of civilisation in the central regions of early emigra- 
tion, is on our side of this question perfectly natural, and 
we are not only bound, but are prepared, to show them. 

It is not a little surprising to find so deliberate a thinker 
as Sir John Lubbock asserting that there is no scientific 
evidence which would justify us in inferring that, as a general 
rule, savages are the remnants of nations once civilised. 
Of course, if he means by this that civilised nations once 
existed where savages are now found, as ruins lie on the site 
of an old castle, no one will assert that this is the " general 
rule." The ancestors of savage tribes have wandered to 
new regions and sunk, and a strong, if not indeed an 
irresistible argument in favour of this view, is to be found 
in the almost universal traditions which have been known 



CHAP. IX.] BLENDING LIGHTS. l6l 

to prevail in nations and tribes the most remote from one 
another. Their arts have perished where their traditions 
have survived. With the histories of Egypt, Babylon, 
Greece, and Mexico in his hand, it is perplexing to hear a 
philosophic observer still demanding scientific evidence of 
degradation and decay. 

But why should savages be stationary, while nations once 
civilised retrograde ? What barrier to descent is there in 
the life of the savage ? What physical or mental obstacle is 
it that checks his downward career? If man has been 
developed from some creature not worthy to be called a man, 
why may he not relapse into that unworthy creaturehood? 
Scientific evidence is decidedly in favour of such a recurrence. 
Civilisation is, on this theory, correspondent to domestication 
of the lower animals, and, as is well known, when they are 
left free, they not only return to their early modes of life, 
but assume their first appearance. The horse, when per- 
mitted to sweep without restraint over the wide pampas of 
South America, shows not new but original qualities ; and 
even the stiff, slow, lumbering hog, losing in freedom " the 
lethargy of the sty, exhibits the fierce courage of the wild 
boar." Then, why is it that man, left free and untutored, 
does not sink in accordance with this law, even lower than 
Fuegian or Bushman, and exhibit the wild freedom of that 
strange progenitor which has not a name ? 

This should be the natural result, and indeed, also, in 
one sense, the safest. " To exist at all," says the Duke of 
Argyll, "this creature must have been more animal in its 
structure than man. That structure could not be changed 
to less of animal and more of man, without danger to his 
existence. If reason obtained a great start in advance, the 
theory of development is destroyed. Interposition which 
they deny would be implied, and even then, with such 

M 



162 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. IX. 

advantages as many tribes do now possess, life is most 
precarious. These are reckoned too high for the start in 
the race, and if the lower animal structure best suited 
these animals, it is not likely that, by Natural Selection, 
they should ever become higher. The difficulties here 
represented are insuperable." If, by any process, man should 
reach so high a stage of improvement as we have indicated, 
his risks, his greater bodily weakness, and his tendency in 
common with all animals to revert to the original type, should 
bring him back to the early creaturehood from which he had 
unwisely emerged. 

Whately's demand for historical evidence of ascent to 
civilisation by any one savage tribe or nation, has not been 
met by any ethnologist. Sir John Lubbock has endeavoured 
to overcome this difficulty, and has failed. He objects 
to the demand as, in the nature of the case, impossible, for 
monuments are awanting. By monuments, it would be 
difficult, it is true, to prove the race to have been originally 
savage ; but there has been ample time, if indeed the germs 
of progress exist in barbarous races, to find somewhere in 
rude incipient monuments evidence of vitality and growth, 
and some probability of future eminence. But such 
evidence has not been offered, nor is it ever likely to be 
found. There is not a vestige of proof that those who lived 
in Europe, in the stone age, rose to that of bronze by their 
own unaided skill; but there is very clear and very decided 
proof that other races, breaking in upon the stone-implement 
communities, did introduce their bronze instruments, and 
that they in their turn received iron implements from an 
irruption of succeeding races. 

Historically, stone implements should be followed by 
those of copper and of tin separately, for it is only after 
both had been in use for some time that we should expect 



CHAP. IX.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 163 

the union of the two, that is, of the copper and the, tin, in 
bronze utensils. The bronze, it is true, would be speedily- 
adopted, as Sir William Wilde suggests, in preference to 
copper or tin, for general use, because it is harder and 
sharper ; but still, sufficient time must have elapsed to 
diffuse such instruments as would have proved their intro- 
duction by invention, if there had been in any region such 
material historical growth as the theory assumes. But it is 
not so. Bronze instruments appear suddenly in the midst 
of stone implements, without the intermediate stage of 
separate vessels of copper and of tin. Sir John Lubbock 
has candidly admitted that the absence of implements made 
either of copper or of tin, indicates that " the art of making 
bronze was introduced into, not invented in, Europe." 1 But 
the concession is historically fatal to his theory. It invali- 
dates the whole of his reasoning as to continuity of progress 
from barbarism to civilisation. In Europe, these periods are 
not a growth, they are a series of distinct additions. 

New ideas and practices were infused by some other 
nations. The East is the only probable source, and their 
introduction expresses a common origin, for the instruments 
are not only generally, but perfectly, alike. 

Mr. Wright, whose authority is unquestionable, has declared 
that " the bronze swords or celts, whether in Ireland, in the 
Far West, in Scotland, in distant Scandinavia, in Germany, 
or, still further east, in the Sclavonic countries, are the 
same, — not similar, but identical." Professor Nilsson traces 
the origin of bronze implements to the Phoenicians ; and we 
know that in the east, bronze was common at least 800 B.C., 
for both Homer and Hesiod speak of them, and by an 
older pen than either held, it is declared in the fourth 

1 "Prehistoric Times," Second Edition, p. 58. 



164 BLEEDING LIGHTS. [chap. IX. 

chapter of Genesis, — "And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain, 
an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron." Egypt in 
Joseph's time had her sharp and polishing instruments, and, 
in Solomon's time, the Sidonians were skilled in hewing 
timber, and the Syrians were cunning to work all "works in 
brass." It is admitted by all that brass here means bronze. 
More than three thousand years ago, bronze was common in 
the east, and its sudden appearance in the west, in Ireland, 
for instance, and in Scandinavia, not only gives evidence in 
favour of civilisation being dependent on external influences 
for its progress, but sheds light on the question of time, and 
guides us to at least approximate dates. In short, there has 
been a complete breakdown in the effort to prove that, in 
the course of ages, the development has been continuous 
from the rough stone age to the smooth, from that to bronze, 
and from bronze to iron. 

Since Archbishop Whately sifted, with the skill of a severe 
logician, all the historical evidence which, up to his time, 
had been published, there has been little added in the way 
of discover}- or fresh observation. The facts, in the main, are 
old ; the collocation only is new : and any intelligent reader 
is competent to judge of both as matters of testimony, and 
of the inferences which have been deduced from them. If 
it had been shown, in even one instance, that any savage 
race had risen to a recognisable degree of civilisation, with- 
out the introduction of new ideas and a higher example, there 
would be presumptive evidence for the truth of the theory ; 
yet only presumption, unless it could also be shown that 
they had been so long sunken, that probably no recuperative 
power lingered from a previous state. In the descent from 
civilisation to barbarism, a nation or tribe may preserve this 
recuperative force, when, in the history of individuals or of 
isolated tribes, it might be lost as they passed into new 



CHAP. IX.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 165 

territories. The ancient Gauls and Germans, for example, 
preserved this recuperative tendency; and if such as the 
Australians or Fuegians ever gave any evidence of self-im- 
provement or tribe culture, we should have the presumptive 
evidence which we desiderate ; but even that has not been 
forthcoming, and as yet Whately's demand remains unmet. 

Those who, through close and varied intercourse, have 
had the best means of judging of the condition and 
capabilities of savage races, have decided against this 
plausible theory. Humboldt, with his usual caution, has 
said, " The important question has not yet been resolved, 
whether the savage state, which even in America is found in 
various gradations, is to be looked upon as the dawning 
of a society about to rise, or whether it is not rather the 
fading remains of one sinking amid storms, overthrown and 
shattered by overwhelming catastrophes. To me the latter 
seems nearer the truth than the former." And Sir George 
Grey, at a recent meeting of the British Association, 
firmly opposed the theory. He has had varied opportunities 
of observation, and in his view no advances have been made 
in really savage tribes. The stationary remain stationary, 
for they cannot extricate themselves, nor do they appear to 
have any decided desire to change their condition. 

It is unnecessary to prosecute further this part of the subject, 
as enough has been stated to show that the historical evidence 
is, in its incompleteness, similar to that of Darwin for the 
advances of animal life and its fabrics; the links are awanting 
where we should expect to find them, and where their appear- 
ance is indispensable to prove the theory. Its advocates 
have, with more or less frankness, confessed their inability to 
account for those facts and principles on which Christian 
apologists rest their historical argument for the truth of the 
Scripture record of the origin and progress of civilisation, 



CHAPTER X. 

(Subject Continued.) 

Were our First Parents Savages ? — Recent Theories as to the 
Origin of Civilisation considered in Relation to the 
Mental Faculties, the Moral Sense, and Religion. 

"Christians have a right to protest against the arraying of pro- 
babilities against the clear teachings of Scripture. It is not easy to 
estimate the evil that is done by eminent men throwing the weight of 
their authority on the side of unbelief, influenced by a mere balance of 
probabilities in one department, to the neglect of the most convincing 

proofs of a different kind Thus they often decide against 

the Bible on evidence that would not determine an intelligent jury in a 
suit for twenty shillings." — Professor C. Hodge. 

IN attempting to deduce those mental and moral results 
which characterise modern civilisation from some 
creature that had not even a head in which to treasure a 
single idea, theorists have greater difficulties to overcome 
than when they endeavour to connect man's body with the 
lowest mollusc. No one refuses to acknowledge the exist- 
ence of intelligence, memory, and some measure of reason- 
ing power in many of the lower animals; but such an 
admission stops far short of connecting the human mind, by 
lineal descent, with intellectual germs in some gorilla, or 
snail, or worm, and of discovering in that lowliest origin not 
only the foundation of the complex fabric of our civilisation, 
but the spring of all those ideas of immortality, responsibility, 
private and public duties, eternity, and God, which shed a 
richer splendour over man's history than that which all the 
sciences and arts united can of themselves create. The 



CHAP. X.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 167 

advocates of this theory have utterly failed in their attempt 
to include in their system, and to account for, the practical 
lessons of Christianity. Its lofty morality, its sublime doc- 
trines, and its " pure and undented religion," are left without 
an origin or an aim. As facts, if as nothing else, theorists 
are bound to account for them, or, at least, as an outcome 
from previous ideas. Let us examine the facts which they 
select from the natural history of the lower animals and of the 
lowest man, to constitute the basis of ultimate intellectual and 
moral improvement. What evidence is there that the ideas 
and the habits of the lower animals and the most sunken 
savages, so commingle as to make this theory even plausible ? 
Is there a vestige of proof to show that there has been an 
intermingling of notions or practices, and that, through or 
by them, man has emerged to that lowest platform on which 
there was the first beam of civilisation ? What data do they 
present to warrant our acceptance of the sweeping con- 
clusion that Psychology, Mental Philosophy, Ethics, and 
Practical Religion, or the lessons of Christianity, are 
deducible from even the most accomplished of the lower 
animals ? 

To that issue the theorist is brought, and he is bound to 
face it. If he cannot include in his exposition all the higher 
forms of Feeling, Thought, and Law, he should acknow- 
ledge his failure, and that we are justified in rejecting his con- 
clusions. 

Darwin, Herbert Spencer, and Sir John Lubbock, 
evidently anticipating such legitimate demands as these, 
have resolutely attempted to satisfy them ; and, in their 
respective fields, have adduced their strongest proofs and 
best reasoning. By placing in immediate connection their 
interlacing, and, sometimes, conflicting expositions of each 
topic, we shall obtain a definite view of what has been most 



1 68 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. X. 

influential in deciding their opinion, and be the better able 
to do justice to them and ourselves in forming a deliberate 
conclusion. 

But to follow this course, is to find the very same kind of 
defective reasoning in reference to the descent of the human 
mind and the growth of civilisation, of which we complained 
when discussing the proof for the descent of the human 
body from some primordial germ which started into life 
millions of years ago. There are the same unbridged 
chasms, the same absence of necessary links, the same 
inadequacy of data. 

Three questions require to be answered. First, Are there 
any facts to show the close connection of the mind and 
habits of the highest of the lower animals with the very 
lowest of the human race ? Second, Is there any evidence 
of a moral nature in the lower animals which can, even 
plausibly, be regarded as the foundation of Man's moral 
constitution ? And Third, Out of what condition is religion 
evolved ? On what foundation does this theory place it ? 
What is its influence on civilisation ? 

Darwin himself has answered these questions with such 
qualifications, that it is surprising to see him endeavouring 
to fasten together important conclusions by a chain, broken 
and dissevered through the absence of its central links. 

Let us next consider — 

III. Civilisation in Relation to Man's Mental 
Faculties. 

Among British Naturalists of the highest standing, there 
is a general concurrence of opinion as to the gulf between 
the intellectual faculties of man and whatever degree of 
mind may show itself in the lower animals. It is impossible 
to connect the two. Professor Huxley speaks " of the great 
gulf which intervenes between the lowest man and the highest 



CHAP. X.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 169 

ape in intellectual power," 1 "of the immeasurable and 
practically infinite divergence of the human from the 
Simian stirps," 2 and " of the present enormous gulf between 
them." 3 " At the same time," he repeats, " no one is more 
strongly convinced than I am of the vastness of the gulf 
between civilised man and the brutes; or is more certain 
that, whether from them or not, he is assuredly not of 
them." 4 

In reference to this vast break, Darwin is no less explicit 
than Huxley. When he is describing the intellectual distance 
between man and those creatures which are nearest him in 
brain-organisation and force, he declares the difference to 
be enormous. " No doubt," he says, " the difference in this 
respect is enormous, even if we compare the mind of one of 
the lowest savages, who has no words to express any 
number higher than four, and who can use no abstract 
terms for the commonest objects or affections, with that of 
the most highly organised ape. The difference would, no 
doubt, still remain immense, even if one of the higher apes 
had been improved or civilised as much as a dog has been 
in comparison with its parent form, the wolf or jackal." 5 
Notwithstanding this "immense" distance between the two, 
and the consequent want of the least evidence of any lineal 
relations whatever, he has amusingly assumed, in his "Origin 
of Species," that he has discovered such a mental connection 
of man with the lower animals as shall form the basis of a 
new system of Psychology. Mental science will start on a 
new track in search of other objects than our metaphysicians 
have hitherto kept in view. His statement is, " In the 
distant future, I see open fields for far more important 

1 "Man's Place in Nature," p. 102. 2 Ibid, Foot-note, p. IQ3. 
3 Ibid, p. 102. 4 Ibid, p. no. 5 " Descent of Man," Vol. I., p. 34. 



170 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. X. 

researches. Psychology will be based on a new foundation, 
that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and 
capacity by gradation. Light will be thrown on the origin 
of man and his history/' 1 The contests of metaphysicians 
will cease, even when the phrenologist has transferred his 
examination of the supposed compartments of the human 
brain to the nervous tissues of the lower and lowest animals, 
and new triumphs will indeed give unexpected lustre to 
man's history, when he has educed from a material body 
that which is non-material, and from the perishing that 
which is imperishable. We have here a theory involv- 
ing the complete and immediate overthrow of that system 
of mental science in which Mind is regarded as a substance 
distinct from the body, and which has been developed 
by some of the most accurate and powerful thinkers of 
recent times, advocated on the possible existence of facts of 
which there is not the slightest evidence. Mr. Wallace, 
who in originality and independence as a thinker and a 
naturalist is Mr. Darwin's compeer, rejects his theory 
regarding the descent of our mental faculties. There are 
faculties and conceptions for which, in his view, it provides 
no explanation. " But there is," he says, " another class of 
human faculties that do not regard our fellowmen, and 
which cannot, therefore, be thus accounted for. Such are 
the capacity to form ideal conceptions of space and time, of 
eternity and infinity. The capacity for intense artistic 
feelings of pleasure in form, colour, and composition, and 
for those abstract notions of form and number which render 
geometry and arithmetic possible. How were all or any of 
these faculties first developed, when they could have been 
of no possible use to man in his early stages of barbarism ? 

1 " Origin of Species/' pp. 577, 578. 1869. 



CHAP. X.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 171 

How could ' Natural Selection/ a survival of the fittest in 
the struggle for existence, at all favour the development of 
mental powers so entirely removed from the material neces- 
sities of savage men, and which even now, with our com- 
paratively high civilisation, are, in their farthest develop- 
ments, in advance of the age, and appear to have relation 
rather to the future of the race than to its actual status?" Y 
These questions are unanswerable, and expose the indisput- 
able inadequacy of the foundation on which Mr. Darwin has 
raised his complicated structure. 

Professor Tyndall, starting with the idea of the develop- 
ment of life from the star dust, comes to the same con- 
clusion, and places it before us with such vividness that it 
cannot soon be forgotten. " For what are the core and 
essence of this hypothesis ? Strip it naked, and you stand 
face to face with the notion that not alone the more ignoble 
forms of animalcular or animal life, not alone the noble 
forms of the horse and lion, not alone the exquisite and 
wonderful mechanisms of the human body, but the human 
mind itself, — emotion, intellect, will, and all these pheno- 
mena, were once latent in a fiery cloud. Surely the mere 
statement of such a notion is more than a refutation." 2 
Whether life has its origin in the "star dust," or in some germs 
at a later date, the process is the same, and the idea is equally 
absurd. • We say absurd, because there is not a trace of 
lineal descent by which we can possibly connect with the 
highest and best-informed ape or gorrilla the intellect of a 
Newton, a Bacon, a Shakespeare, or a Milton. Darwin 
himself has admitted that the facts are awanting and the 
connections hidden. We must, therefore, be excused for 



1 Wallace on "Natural Selection," pp. 351, 352. 
2 "Fragments of Science, and Scientific Thought," p. 163. 



172 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. X. 

rejecting his inferences, and refusing to take shelter in a 
fabric which is confessedly .without a foundation. 

This view is supported by Bunsen, when he says, " No 
length of time can create a man out of a monkey, because 
it can never happen; for it is a logical contradiction to 
suppose the growth of reason out of its opposite." x 

It may not be out of place to add here, to the admissions 
of naturalists themselves, and to the inference of a philosopher, 
the opinion of one of the readiest wits and keenest intellects of 
his time. "What," exclaimed Sydney Smith, "has the shadow 
or mockery of faculties given to beasts to do with the im- 
mortality of the soul ? It is no reason to say that, because 
they partake in the slighest degree of our nature, they are 
entitled to all the privileges of our nature? I confess I 
have such a marked and decided contempt for the under- 
standing of every baboon I have yet seen, — I feel so sure 
the blue ape without a tail will never rival us in poetry, 
painting, and music, — that I see no reason whatever why 
justice may not be done to the few tatters of understanding 
which they may really possess." 

IV. Civilisation in Relation to the Moral Sense or 
Conscience. 

To the second question, also, Darwin has given a no less 
decided reply. Earnest as he is in claiming for the lower 
animals the possession of mental powers, he abandons the 
idea of their morality, and proceeds to build an ethical system 
for Man without any recognisable foundation. " As we can- 
not distinguish between motives, we rank all actions of a 
certain class as moral, when they are performed by a moral 
being. A moral being is one who is capable of comparing his 
past and future actions or motives, and of approving or dis- 

1 "Egypt's Place in Universal History," IV., p. 54. 



CHAP. X.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 173 

approving of them. We have no reason to suppose that any 
of the lower animals have this capacity. Therefore, when a 
monkey faces danger to rescue its comrade, or takes charge of 
an orphan monkey, we do not call its conduct moral." 1 He 
admits that he finds no morality among the lower animals ; but 
he claims a moral sense for man, and assumes that it has been 
educed from them by some kind of creative force in social 
instincts and sympathies ; yet why or how the same social 
instincts which he traces in the lower animals have failed to 
create in them any germ of conscience, he does not explain. He 
tells us that " the social instincts both of man and the lower 
animals have no doubt been developed by the same steps ;" 
and he infers, at the same time, that the one has become 
moral, while the other has remained non-moral ; nor does he 
improve his exposition when he adds, — "According to the 
view given above, the moral sense is fundamentally identical 
with the social instincts, and in the case of the lower 
animals, it would be absurd to speak of these instincts as 
having been developed from selfishness, or for the happiness 
of the community." ? ' Assuredly, if the moral sense is, as he 
says, " fundamentally identical with the social instincts," an 
incipient conscience or "moral sense" should be found 
manifesting itself in the instincts of the lower animals. If 
his theory of "descent" is worth anything, it should be 
marked by such a connection as we have indicated. That it 
is not, is the exposure of another unbridged chasm in the 
path of descent. In summing up the evidence for man's 
moral sense, he introduces elements for the existence of 
which, on his theory, he cannot possibly account, when he 
says, — " Ultimately, a highly complex sentiment, having its 
first origin in the social instincts, largely guided by the 

1 ''Descent of Man," vol. I., pp. 88, 89. 2 Ibid, 98. 



174 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. X. 

approbation of our fellowmen, ruled by reason, self-interest, 
and, in later times, by deep religious feelings, confirmed by 
instruction and habit, all combined, constitute the one moral 
sense or conscience." 1 What, then, of those tribes which 
have, for generations, been destitute of instruction and deep 
religious feelings ? Have they consequently been destitute 
of conscience ? and have there really been whole races of 
mankind without morality, like the beasts which perish ? We 
thoroughly repudiate the idea of conscience being in the 
least dependent on social instincts for its very existence, 
and on self-interest for its exercise. And if it is absurd, as 
he says it is, "to speak of their instincts as having been 
developed for the happiness of the community," is it not 
equally absurd to speak of them as having " certainly been 
developed for the general good of the community " ? If it is 
true that the lower animals have the same social instincts 
with man, why do they not look ahead, also, to the " general 
good" of the community, and give some joint token of "a 
moral sense," at least in germ ? If the social instincts are 
indeed fundamentally identical in the lower animals and 
man, why are the results so widely different? The facts 
which he adduces are obviously incoherent, and his reason- 
ing is illogical. 

Herbert Spencer strikes in at this juncture with an 
ingenious hypothesis, which he explains and vindicates with 
his wonted fervour of thought and charm of diction. He 
has boldly accounted for the origin of the "moral sense," 
without a single fact on which to rest his supposition. He 
demands from us the belief that " experiences of utility " 
and "nervous modifications" have been transmitted for 
ages, and have been so accumulated as ultimately to create 

1 "Descent of Man," vol. I, p. 165. 



CHAP. X.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 175 



or " become in us certain faculties of moral intuition." His 
words are, " To make my position fully understood, it seems 
needful to add that, corresponding to the fundamental 
propositions of a developed moral science, there have been, 
and still are, developing in the race, certain fundamental 
moral intuitions ; and that, though these moral intuitions 
are the result of accumulated experiences of utility, gradually 
organised and inherited, they have come to be quite 
independent of conscious experience. I believe that the 
experiences of utility, organised and consolidated through 
all past generations of the human race, have been producing 
corresponding nervous modifications, which, by continued 
transmissions and accumulation, have become in us certain 
faculties of moral intuition, active emotions responding to 
right and wrong conduct, which have no apparent basis in 
the individual experiences of utility." 1 By this fine 
phraseology, we are liable to be imposed on, and to take 
it for granted that it is sustained by facts in Natural History 
and Mental Science ; while the truth is, it is destitute of the 
least support. In the history of those animals whose 
instincts and experiences are best known to man through 
succeeding ages, there is not a vestige of improvement ; and 
when we turn to the records of the human race, there is not 
a single line of evidence to prove that, in the remotest 
generations, there was only an incipient moral sense, and 
that succeeding generations show* advances in sensitiveness 
and strength of conscience apart from revealed truth. 

This utilitarian hypothesis, which is the theory of Natural 
Selection applied to the mind, Mr. Wallace regards as 
inadequate to account for the development of the moral 
sense in savage man. The same deficiency which we 

1 Letter to Mr. Mill in Bain's "Mental and Moral Science," p. 722. 



176 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. X. 

noticed in accounting for the development of the mental 
faculties, is met when we endeavour to trace the origin of 
the Moral Sense to experiences of utility ; " For," he says, 
" although the practice of benevolence, honesty, or truth 
may have been useful to the tribe possessing these virtues, 
that does not at all account for the peculiar sanctity attached 
to actions which each tribe considers right or moral, as con- 
trasted with the very different feelings with which they 
regard what is merely useful. .... The utilitarian sanc- 
tion for truthfulness is by no means very powerful or 
universal. Few laws enforce it. No very severe reproba- 
tion follows untruthfulness. In all ages and countries, 
falsehood has been thought allowable in love, and laudable 
in war ; while, at the present day, it is held to be venial by 
the majority of mankind in trade, commerce, and specula- 
tion." 1 On the utilitarian hypothesis, truthfulness could 
never be established or strengthened by sanctity or a sense 
of right ; yet there is a mystical sense of wrong attached to 
untruthfulness even by whole tribes of utter savages. Some 
of the barbarous hill tribes of India are distinguished for 
veracity. There are those of them who " always speak the 
truth;" and Major Jervis says, "the Santals are the most 
truthful men I ever met." A remarkable fact against the 
arguments for utility to the individual, is given by Mr. 
Wallace. " A number of prisoners, taken during the Santal 
insurrection, were allowed to go free on parole, to work at 
a certain spot for wages. After some time cholera attacked 
them, and they were obliged to leave ; but every man of 
them returned and gave up his earnings to the guard. Two 
hundred savages, with money in their girdles, walked thirty 
miles back to prison rather than break their word ! " Mr. 

1 Wallace on "Natural Selection," p. 352. 



CHAP. X.] BLENDING LIGHTS, 177 

Wallace's own experience among savages gave him, in 
similar instances, convincing proof of truthfulness. It is 
held sacred by some tribes and despised by others ; and it 
is difficult to understand how "experiences of utility" should 
leave overwhelming impressions in some tribes and none in 
others, or create in some "a sanctity which over-rides all 
considerations of personal advantage, while in others there 
is hardly a rudiment of such a feeling." Much as Mr. 
Wallace holds in common with Darwin and Herbert 
Spencer, he repudiates their views regarding a moral sense, 
and holds it to be an essential part of man's nature, which 
could not possibly have been gradually evolved from the 
experiences of utility, transmitted through many generations. 
As has been quite conclusively shown by Mr. R. Holt 
Hutton, in a remarkable paper in Macmillarts Magazine, 
there is no evidence whatever, in even a single instance, of 
such a transformation as Herbert Spencer describes, of 
" experiences of utility " passing into an intuition which has 
become permanent as a working force in the human race. 
After stating that craftiness was justified by the utility of 
its consequences in the time of Homer's wily "Ulysses," 
and that the maxim, " Honesty is the best policy," was not 
introduced until long after the most imperious enunciation 
of its sacredness as a duty, Mr. Hutton adds, — "Three 
thousand years ago at least, there is no trace of any such 
sanction for honesty in the literature which gave to honesty 
the most binding character. ' He that hath clean hands and 
a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor 
sworn deceitfully,' 'he that sweareth to his hurt, and changeth 
not,' was not praised at that date as the gainer of all sorts 
of earthly advantages for society, but as alone able to enter 
into communion with God." He declares that there are 
no moral notions, however sacred, which have not been 

N 



178 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. X. 

promulgated for thousands of years, and that the Bible had 
constantly to check utilitarian objections to their authority, 
and " utilitarian excuses for breaches of duty." He has also 
well observed that, if anything is remarkable in the history 
of morality, it is the anticipatory character of moral principles, 
the intensity and absoluteness with which they are laid down 
ages before the world has approximated to that ideal which 
had thus early been asserted. 1 

The attempt, indeed, to explain away the human con- 
science, or to reduce it to dependence on the shifting 
experiences of utility, and on modifications of the nervous 
tissues, has proved completely abortive. The common 
reasoning in support of the hypothesis has been condemned 
as fallacious by influential members of the same school, and 
as worthy only of rejection. 

Sir John Lubbock himself, perceiving the serious objections 
to which Herbert Spencer's reasoning is exposed, has not 
hesitated to set it aside, but only to be equally unsuccessful 
in the substitute which he has proposed. Repudiating 
" utility to the individual," he advocates Authority as the basis 
or origin of morality, and supports his conclusion by a 
reference to the ideas and customs prevalent in Australia, 
where the best of everything is by law given to the old men, 
who "naturally lose no opportunity of impressing their 
injunctions on the young," praising those who conform, and 
condemning those who resist. "Authority," he adds, 
"seems to me the origin, and utility, though not in the 
manner suggested by Mr. Spencer, the criterion of virtue." 2 
Is there not in this brief statement very surprising confusion? 
Authority must have right and wrong for its guidance. It is 

1 Macmillaris Magazine, July, 1869. See also Chapter ix. in Mivart's 
" Genesis of Species," for an able discussion of Evolution and Ethics. 
2 "Origin of Civilisation," pp. 272, 273. 



CHAP. X.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 1 79 



administrative of what is just. It does not originate duties 
and virtues, — it is ruled by them, — and when authority is 
absolute, we have only two conditions, despotism and 
subjection or slavery. The ideas of right and wrong must 
have an acknowledged value as recognised principles, before 
"Authority" could enforce their application. If we accept 
Sir John Lubbock's historical explanation, then right and 
wrong, like Spencer's experiences of utility, must ultimately 
disappear in the shifting claims of sheer selfishness. 

No sooner have we carefully reviewed the principles and 
inferences which Darwin, Herbert Spencer, and Sir John 
Lubbock respectively advocate as the basis and explanation 
of the origin and progress of civilisation, than we are 
convinced of their helplessness, as either intellectual or 
moral guides, when they pass from the legitimate and severer 
exercises of physical science and philosophy into a domain 
of human inquiry which cannot be safely traversed without 
believing, as a first truth, that man has had given to him, as 
part of his complex nature, a separate spiritual existence, 
which, though working here in and through a bodily 
organisation, has yet laws and conditions which are not 
dependent on the body, but are related to the " unseen and 
eternal." Recognising this complex nature, — the bodily, the 
intellectual, and the moral, — and classifying on a distinct 
basis their separate phenomena and laws, we find that 
the conclusions which are logically reached are more in 
harmony with the teachings of Scripture than with the 
theories of scepticism. 

While this necessarily brief exposition of their conflicting 
opinions as to the very foundation of civilisation might be 
largely extended, enough has been submitted to show how 
valueless are the speculations of even powerful thinkers, 
when they attempt to compress within the restricted area of 



180 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. X. 

Natural Science, the higher and wider laws or conditions of 
Mental Science and Moral Philosophy. 

V. Civilisation in Relation to Religion. 

Still more signal has been their failure, in the effort to 
trace the origin and development of religion from the no- 
ideas of "semi-human" beings, to the doctrine and the 
ennobling practical lessons of Christianity. It is by no 
means enough that they look over the records of travellers, 
and collect the many hasty and incongruous beliefs and 
practices which they have detailed, so that by an arbitrary 
collocation they may make plausible their system of 
evolution. Nor is it enough that they assert that certain 
advanced religious ideas and practices may have come from 
others which preceded them. They are bound to demon- 
strate their necessarily continuous progress, until they have 
culminated in the present civilisation of Christendom. Sir 
John Lubbock and Mr. W. B. Tylor have attempted to 
accomplish, in reference to the growth of religion, what Mr. 
Darwin has failed to achieve in the psychological history of 
our race. Beginning with tribes in which he says no trace 
of religion has existed, Sir John afterwards finds a rudimentary 
religion, and attempts to trace, historically, the ideas and 
customs expressed by Marriage, Law, and Religion. 

Between these two states of no-religion and rudimentary 
religion, there is another unbridged gulf. How can religion 
be evolved from no-religion ? Throughout his work on the 
" Origin of Civilisation," and that, also, of Mr. W. B. Tylor 
on the " Early History of Mankind," apart from the amazing 
industry which they exhibit, and regarded simply as philoso- 
phical discussions, there prevails a surprising incoherency. 
Their facts do not sustain their inferences. In tracing the 
highest phases of religious thought back to the first dreams 
as their origin, Sir John Lubbock nullifies his own assertion 



CHAP. X.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 181 

as to tribes existing without any religion. If dreams are the 
origin of our ideas of the spirit-world, and, ultimately, not 
only of the Deity, but of our duties to him and our fellow- 
men, is it possible that there could be a tribe without 
rudimentary religion, since they all dream ? Dogs dream. 
Darwin's "semi-human" beings, and Sir John Lubbock's 
" creatures not worthy to be called men," must have also 
had their dreams. Why not their religion ? If we accept 
this hypothesis, we cannot admit the existence of tribes 
without any religious notions or any sense of duty. Mr. 
Tylor does not commit himself to the conclusion that any 
tribe ever existed without religion, nor does he think it 
-" advisable to start from this ground in an investigation of 
religious development." As a matter of fact, such tribes 
have not been found any more than tribes without language, 
or living without fire. The " assertion that rude non- 
religious tribes have been known in actual existence, though 
in theory possible, and perhaps in fact true, does not at 
present rest on sufficient proof, which, for an exceptional 
state of things, we are entitled to demand." 1 This statement, 
though very cautiously expressed, is sufficiently confirmatory 
of the objection which we have urged to the whole theory as 
being defective in essential links. Mr. Tylor, however, agrees 
with Sir J. Lubbock in the conclusion, that all the various 
religious beliefs in the world, with their complicated and 
conflicting systems of worship, are traceable to dreams and 
shadows ; and under the head " Animism," he devotes a 
large portion of his elaborate work, " Primitive Culture," to 
the elucidation of this view. It were a waste of time to 
enter on an exhaustive discussion of the facts which Mr. 
Tylor and Sir J. Lubbock have piled together as the founda- 

1 "Primitive Culture," vol. I., p. 378. 



182 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. X. 

tion on which, they say, the religious fabrics of the world 
are resting. In their very nature, they are inadequate to 
account for the clear, definite, and ennobling ideas which 
appear in the Christian world, — ideas which cannot possibly 
be the product of evolution from such an origin, because they 
are, in some striking instances, not only repressive but 
repugnant to man's lower nature, in which their history 
is assumed to have begun. 

With considerable ingenuity it has been attempted, on 
this theory, to trace the ideas and practices through which 
Marriage, Law, Spirit, Immortality, and God, have come to 
be acknowledged ; but the difficulties of the method have 
forced Sir J. Lubbock not only to begin with races without 
a moral sense, and without morality, but aftenvards, when 
morality has been established, to dissociate it from religion. 
He rejects the reasoning of Mr. Wallace as to the morality 
of certain tribes, inquiring, " Does it prove even that they 
have any moral sense at all ? " and adding, " Surely not." 1 
He quotes Mr. Dove regarding the Tasmanians, to show 
that they are entirely without any moral views and im- 
pressions; — Mr. Burton, to show that in Eastern Africa 
" conscience does not exist;" 2 — and other travellers, to prove 
the same non-morality. But giving equal time to the 
tribes and nations of the world, and the same working force 
in dreams and shadows to produce morality and religion, 
why is it, or how is it, that there should be any tribe now 
without either or both ? On our theory, such a condition is 
easily accounted for ; on his, it is utterly inexplicable. It is 
perfectly clear that from this origin no fixed principles can 
be educed to guide the world. Without religion, without 
belief in a higher Being, there can be no felt obligation, 

l "Origin of Civilisation," p. 263. 2 Ibid, p. 264. 



CHAP. X.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 183 

and, consequently, no permanent code of morals. Each 
individual and each tribe will assert, wherever it is possible 
without impunity, its own supremacy. The facts which Sir J. 
Lubbock quotes, in his chapter on Character and Morals, 
confutes his own inferences ; and when we revert to his 
chapter on Religion, which somewhat awkwardly and 
illogically he has introduced before that on Morals, we 
find it impossible to connect the two by that process of 
development which it is his aim to vindicate. He frankly 
concedes, in the following statement, what proves ultimately 
an unbridged gulf between "rudimentary religion" and 
religion as it is in Christendom : — " It must, however, be 
admitted that religion, as understood by the lower savage 
races, differs essentially from ours; nay, it is not only 
different, but even opposite. Thus, their deities are evil, 
not good ; they may be forced into compliance with the 
wishes of man; they require bloody, and rejoice in human, 
sacrifices ; they are mortal, not immortal • a part of, not the 
author of, nature, they are to be approached by dances rather 
than by prayers, and often approve what we call vice, rather 
than what we esteem as virtue .... We regard the 
Deity as good ; they (the lower races) look upon him as 
evil : we submit ourselves to Him; they endeavour to obtain 
control over Him : we feel the necessity of accounting for 
the blessings by which we are surrounded ; they think the 
blessings come out of themselves, and attribute all evil to 
the interference of malignant beings." 1 

Mark the bearing of these concessions. The religion of 
the lower savages not only differs " essentially" from ours, 
but is its "opposite." How then can this essentially different 
and opposite religion be evolved or developed from that 

1 " Origin of Civilisation," p, 116. 



1 84 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. X. 

which is beneath it, or lower? Such a result is inconceivable 
on the principle which runs through his whole exposition of 
the "Origin of Civilisation." Further, ho\> is it that we regard 
as good the Deity, whom they all regard as evil ? - What has 
induced this great change ? How is it, also, that, while there 
are gods of all qualities, there is no God of holiness except 
where the Bible is acknowledged? How is it that in all 
the systems of religion in the world, apart from the Bible, 
there is endless confusion, and we can find no such grand 
and comprehensive description as that with which from 
childhood we have been familiar, — "God is a spirit, 
infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, 
power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth"? 1 

It is difficult to give anything like coherence to Sir J. 
Lubbock's reasoning on this subject, for, although he speaks 
of the " religious beliefs of the higher races," 2 he gives the 
Bible no higher place than other books. When in reference 
to sacrifices, for example, he quotes David's saying, — " I 
will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he-goats out_ of 
thy folds," (Psalm 1. 9,) — he accepts the statement only as 
in advance of its time, and he accounts for sacrifices, even in 
Solomon's time, not only as being necessary " in the then 
condition of the Jews," but as being part of the " natural 
process of development " 3 through which religion must 
pass. The animal sacrifices which he finds on a great 
scale among the Jews, he can understand only on the 
hypothesis that they were once usual ; and he assumes, by 
a forced interpretation of the 27th chapter of Leviticus, that 
"human sacrifices were at one time habitual among the 
Jews." 4 He entirely misses the meaning of the Jewish 



1 Shorter Catechism, Question 4. * " Origin of Civilisation," p. 236. 
3 "Origin of Civilisation," p. 237. 4 Ibid, p. 243. 



CHAP. X.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 185 

sacrifices, and fails to connect them with the great fact in 
the New Testament history which led Paul to exclaim, — 
" God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our 
Lord Jesus Christ." 1 We have referred to these somewhat 
minute yet essential parts of his exposition, because they 
become incoherent, and in part unintelligible, when near its 
close he says, — " The higher faiths, however, merely super- 
imposed themselves on, and did not eradicate, the lower 
superstitions." 2 Whence are these higher faiths ? Are they 
revealed or evolved ? And how came they to superimpose 
themselves? The difficulty is not lessened when, in the 
next paragraph, he says, " Nay, in the absence of education, 
not even Christianity prevents mankind from falling into 
these errors.'' 3 He does himself the greatest possible 
injustice if he recognises Christianity as a revealed system, 
"superimposing" a higher faith, revolutionising the world, 
and ennobling it with the fullest possible civilisation, and 
yet does not set it down as the basis of all that is true, 
permanent, and heavenly in the moral and religious evolu- 
tion of the human race. 

We most cordially concur in Sir J. Lubbock's statement 
that science is rendering "immense service" to the cause 
of religion and humanity, and that true science and true 
religion cannot be really opposed to one another ; but we 
repudiate the idea that " true religion, without science, is 
impossible." St. Peter and others, in apostolic times, knew 
little of physical science, for it is to that section of thought 
Sir J. Lubbock refers ; but he will not deny that they exem- 
plified true religion, and that " to the poor " the gospel was 
preached. 

We think he haS also signally failed in his estimate of the 



1 Galatians vi. 14. 2 "Origin of Civilisation," p. 255. 3 Ibid, p. 256, 



186 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. X. 

power of religion, and of the tendencies of the human heart 
and intellect, when he declares that he holds the non- 
existence of religion among savage races to be their original 
condition, because " it is difficult to believe that a people 
which had once possessed a religion should ever lose it." 1 
He knows little of the condition of our sunken population 
in large towns, who can write thus regarding the preservation 
of religious beliefs among them. Men may not be able to 
forget the religion which they were once taught, or to root 
out every vestige of the religious belief which they have 
deliberately abandoned, and to that extent Sir J. Lubbock's 
declaration maybe true, that " Man can no more voluntarily 
abandon or change the articles of his religious creed than he 
can make one hair black or white, or add another cubit to 
his stature ; ;; 2 but beyond that it is not true, and gives no 
support to his theory. Our experience of the helplessness 
and ignorance of those who have been allowed to grow up 
in our great cities, unheeded by man and reckless of the 
future, warrants our unqualified rejection of this too generous 
statement. In an examination of factory workers in which, 
when attending the Glasgow University, we took part with 
others, at the request of one of the most enterprising and 
philanthropic merchants in the city, the ignorance which 
prevailed of the simplest Bible truths, was conclusive proof 
of the almost incredible rapidity with which a people might 
sink through even civilised society, into that state spoken of 
by the apostle as " having no hope, and without God in the 
world." 3 They had not abandoned their religious belief, for 

1 "Origin of Civilisation," p. 348; see also "British Association 
Reports," p. 121. 1867. Dundee. 2 "Origin of Civilisation," p. 348. 

3 Some answered that "God was the first man;" some that 
"Jesus was the first man;" some that " Eve was the first man;" some 
"never heard of heaven or hell;" and one answered that she "kent 



CHAP. X.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 187 

they had never been taught any, and their "social instincts" 
did not much assist them. Many of them had no conception 
whatever of a Deity, of future reward or punishment, of 
heaven or hell j and they were as ignorant of the facts of 
Scripture as if they had been brought up in Timbuctoo or 
Unyanyembe ! If such thorough ignorance of all religion 
and its duties can be found in a city representing, in its 
West-End, the luxury, the culture, and the refinement of 
modern civilisation, what degradation and sunkenness might 
we not expect in the territories of neglected savage tribes ? 
This sunken condition is by no means exceptional. The 
varied experiences of town missionaries have furnished 
similar facts, and confirmed the conclusion that morally, 
intellectually, and physically, man does often sink from a 
higher to a lower level. Men lose religious knowledge, 
they cease to believe religious truth, and they fall away from 
religious duty. This has been admirably stated by the 
Duke of Argyll • l and there is perhaps no part of Sir J. 
Lubbock's reply which is weaker than his treatment of this 
objection. 2 Although religions, as he asserts, may not be 
put on nor cast off like garments, according to their utility, 

naething about thae things ; " some were ignorant of the resurrection, 
and refused to believe it ; some said the soul would die with the body ; 
and one on being asked simple questions about Moses, Joseph, Daniel, 
and others, said she "did not know any of these gentlemen." The 
examination embraced 698 workers, male and female, between 13 and 
21 years of age, in four factories, viz., two spinning, one steam-loom, 
and one woollen, and was conducted, during six evenings, by twelve 
schoolmasters, the Rector of the Normal College, and six students of 
the University, assisted by the overseers of each public work. The 
examination was thorough, and revealed a state of almost utter 
heathenism, which confounded us. The facts were published at the 
time, and were not called in question. — See "Stow's Training System," 
p. 128. loth edition. 
1 "Primeval Man," p. 156. a "Origin of Civilisation," p. 348, 



1 88 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. X. 

beauty, or power of comforting, they may be gradually 
reduced or worn out, or become so patched that the original 
texture may be scarcely recognisable, or they may be 
scornfully torn off and flung aside by infidels, whose families 
are allowed to grow up in neglect of every religious obser- 
vance. A very generous weakness is betrayed by Sir J. 
Lubbock, when he gives the following reason for the per- 
manence of religious influences : — " Religion appeals so 
strongly to the hopes and fears of men \ it takes so deep a 
hold on most minds ; it is so good a consolation in times of 
sorrow and sickness, that I can hardly believe any nation 
would ever abandon it altogether." 1 Nations may not 
deliberately abandon their religion ; yet emigrants to other 
lands may gradually or rapidly lose it, and found communities 
or tribes in which religious beliefs are but dimly perceptible. 
In large towns like Glasgow, Liverpool, and London, there 
may linger among the sunken masses vague notions of a 
power in religion, so long as the Sabbath bells and a day of 
rest proclaim its existence ; but in such notions there can 
be no support, nor consolation, nor civilising influence. 

On his theory, how can religion be of the least practical 
value ? It is of the earth, earthy ; it is a religion without a 
Bible and without a Saviour, originated in those irrational 
creatures which are beneath man, and developed by a pro- 
cess which no one can comprehend. It is at best a struggle, 
an upheaval ; it cannot uplift or attract us, it has no 
heavenliness, and of what avail can it possibly be to the spirit 
as it is leaving the " earthly house of this tabernacle" for 
" the unseen and eternal." 

By these theorists, we are left ignorant of the future. 
They can know nothing of it, — their philosophy fails them, — 

1 "British Association Reports," p. 121. 1867. 



CHAP. X.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 189 

they ignore in their history of civilisation the one Book 
which can explain aright, because it originates, its highest 
forms, — which is the true Interpreter of History, — and the 
Sanctifying Force which is to uplift a sunken world. 

What are the highest aspirations of these guides ? What 
practical form does their religion assume ? And, of what 
moral value can it be to the human race ? Let themselves 
speak. Darwin has said, after referring to the strange 
superstitions and customs which have prevailed, as being 
"terrible to think of," "yet it is well occasionally to reflect 
on these superstitions, for they show us what an infinite 
debt of gratitude we owe " — to whom ? to man ? to God, 
the bountiful giver of every good and perfect gift? no ! — "to 
the improvement of our reason, to science, and our accumu- 
lated knowledge." 1 Think of that, u gratitude to science" and 
to our own "accumulated knowledge" ! ! As well is it to speak 
of gratitude to stocks and stones, or other senseless things. 

Nor does Herbert Spencer guide us to a clearer atmos- 
phere and a firmer resting place, when he reasons in favour 
of a progress which shall cease altogether when an " equili- 
brium " has been established between man and his surround- 
ing conditions. When the internal forces which we know as 
feelings are perfectly balanced by the external forces which 
they encounter, then there will be reached something like 
the repose of heaven. 2 Is such a result possible ? Does 

1 " Descent of Man," vol. I., pp. 68, 69. 
2 Herbert Spencer's words are — "The adaptation of man's nature to 
the conditions of his existence, cannot cease until the internal forces, 
which we know as feelings, are in equilibrium with the external forces 
they encounter. And the establishment of this equilibrium is, the 
arrival at a state of human nature and a social organisation such that 
- the individual has no desires but those which may be satisfied without 
exceeding his proper sphere of action, while society maintains no 
restraints but those which the individual voluntarily respects." — First 
Principles, p. 512. 



190 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. X. 

philosophy warrant the supposition that discipline shall 
cease, and man's intellectual and moral nature shall be 
balanced between opposing forces? The hypothesis is 
unscientific. It violates the laws which history and our 
constitution have proved to be permanent and ineradicable, 
in our yearning after a higher and brighter existence than this 
world can know. We may at once set aside, as untrue to 
nature, the conclusion that ever there shall be a condition 
on earth in which human desires will be satisfied through any 
conceivable combination of external forces with internal feel- 
ings, and that the hitherto unsatisfied pantings of the soul will 
cease in the enjoyment of the dull repose of the mere brute. He 
has studied the struggles of the human mind to little purpose, 
indeed, who believes that aught earthly can satisfy its deepest 
longings. To accept Herbert Spencer's theory of the high- 
est conceivable form of civilisation, is to assume that man's 
unquenchable thirst shall be satisfied here, that desire shall be 
lost in the stupor of luxury, and that hope itself shall perish 
in earth-born perfection. 

Beautiful as the theory is in the presence of the imagin- 
ation, facts do not sustain it ; and our reason scorns it, as 
violating some of those laws by which the human constitution 
is being ever disciplined in relation to the unseen and eternal. 
The speculations in which many indulge, varied as they 
are, and, in some instances, really invigorating as mental 
gymnastics, are yet unprofitable, and we must add, illogical. 
Divested of those ideas which the theorists have uncon- 
sciously drawn from the Christianity that, like the atmos- 
phere, is diffused over society in Britain, their speculations 
could not bear the touch of the gentlest test. They have 
noright to use its principles, for the only ideas which they can 
employ, with logical fairness, are those which issue from their 
own departments in the Natural History of the lower animals ! 



CHAP. X.] . BLENDING LIGHTS. 191 

and man. Their ideas of " sin " and " sorrow and repen- 
tance/' of a " moral sense/' and of a universal, beneficent, 
and Holy Creator and Ruler, l are obviously borrowed from 
the Bible, and the Christian system which it unfolds ; and 
yet they professedly exclude both. Let them carry out their 
principles, and the legislation of Britain will pass into the 
confusion which "strikes" among the employed and the com- 
binations of the employers are already beginning to create. 
What principles and what precepts can legislators in the 
Darwin, or Herbert Spencer, or Sir J. Lubbock school, bring 
to bear on contending masses of man, which can be of the 
least practical value, except those which are drawn from 
Scripture, and which inculcate with all the majesty of Divine 
authority the obligations of self-denial and mutual love? 
Selfishness and utilitarianism in political economy will be 
inevitable results on the theory of Natural Selection, and the 
"survival of the fittest" will be the prevalence of Might only. 
Their teaching bears us back to the too long honoured plan, — 

"That they should take [select] who have the power, 
And they should keep who can." 

Natural Selection can acknowledge no law, and Barbarism 
can create none. "Where there is no law, there is no 
transgression." This nation, if civilisation is to prevail in its 
highest and most enduring form, must revert with more than 
its old earnestness to the principles which the Word of God 
inculcates; for through these only, is that righteousness made 
powerful by which nations are permanently exalted. 



1 See Sir J. Lubbock's "Prehistoric Times," p. 387, 2nd edition; 
and also Darwin's "Descent of Man," vol. II., p. 395, where it is 
said — "The idea of a universal and beneficent Creator of the Universe 
does not seem to arise in the mind of man until he has been elevated 
by long-continued culture." Culture has never given that idea apart 
from the Bible or tradition. 



I92 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. X. 

We cannot leave this subject without protesting against 
the notion which some appear to cherish, when they charge 
us, — sometimes by hints, and sometimes openly, — with 
being unfavourable to science, and fearing it. We are not. 
We love it. The Works of God in creation are a source of 
inexhaustible delight to every student. Next to the guidance 
of the Word of God, the lessons of His Works are the most 
impressive, animating, and enriching. That man's heart is 
not right, who is not elevated by the beauties, and even by the 
very mysteries which Nature is ever spreading before him ; 
but while conceding all this, we cannot accept as true the 
declaration that science can of itself make us " innocent " 
or more virtuous, and that "religion is impossible without it." 
The highest possible civilisation mil combine them both. 
"When they shine upon one another, pouring forth their 
treasures of light for man's enlargement and comfort, Science, 
Philosophy, Theology, and Religion, may be found mutually 
helpful. We resist their separation. We keep side by side 
the Works and the Word of God. The longer the humble 
student looks into the Word of God, the more imposing 
does the grandeur of its revelation become, and the more 
satisfying to the soul is its deepening confidence in its God. 
But there is this peculiarity in the marvellous volume, that 
while it impresses the philosopher, it interests the child. 
Within this record, while there are treasured up for us 
wondrous facts, tenderest sympathies and purest thoughts, 
profoundest philosophy, and mysterious movements of Divine 
government and of sovereign grace, into which angels love to 
look, there are also teachings so simple and so direct that a 
child's lip can lisp them, and a child's life embody them. 

There maybe true religion in the life of the young without 
much of the profounder theology on which many expend 
their strength. So, also, " pure and undenled religion " 



CHAP. X.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 193 

may exist without attainments in Natural Science. Men 
ignorant of the speculations of the philosopher, and unable 
to comprehend the calculus of the mathematician, or to 
apply any of the tests of the scientist, may, notwithstanding, 
enjoy vigorous health, be nerved by the bracing breeze, and 
revel in the beauty of a summer's landscape or in the wild 
turmoil of a winter's storm ; so, also, those who are similarly 
ignorant may have health of soul, and delight in the beauties 
of holiness, while they realise, in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
"the chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely." 
Millions of our working population, unacquainted with 
recent discoveries of science and applications in art, and 
undisturbed by conflicting Biblical criticisms or historic 
doubts, or the problems of speculative theology, may, not- 
withstanding, have that faith, and that experimental know- 
ledge of the few simple doctrines which are related to sin, 
repentance, pardon, and peace, and may be marked by that 
refinement of feeling, of language, and of conduct, which 
Christianity alone imparts, and which of itself constitutes a 
civilisation incomparably nobler than that which science 
alone can ever evolve. 

The bold assumptions by modem theorists of progress, 
are to be strenuously resisted. They claim it as their dis- 
tinctive characteristic ; but we do not yield it ; while 
partially theirs, it is pre-eminently ours. Progress with us 
has not only a more comprehensive range of feeling and of 
thought, but a grander close, while they are left behind in 
comparative gloom. That the affections be purified and 
exalted, the understanding enlightened, the will made sub- 
missive, and the imagination regulated, is the law of the 
Christian's life. His path, like that of the just, shall shine 
" more and more unto the perfect day." Sanctification is 
evolution in its highest form. Following on to know the 

o 



194 



BLENDING LIGHTS. 



[CHAP. X. 



Lord is the Christian's privilege, and to bear in love his 
brother's burden, is to " fulfil the law of Christ" ! Thus man 
may reach the summit of civilisation on earth, but progress 
hereafter shall be continuous, development of character in 
eternity may be anticipated. Capacity will be enlarged. 
" It doth not yet appear what we shall be ; but we know that 
when he shall appear we shall be like Him." The light of 
Scripture, blending with that of Science, not only to enlarge 
our conceptions, but to cheer and guide us on our earthly 
pilgrimage, shines beyond the gloom of death into the dis- 
tant future, and reveals intuitional attainment. By its light, 
we discover unfailing advancement. Imposed limit there is 
none. Growth in knowledge will never cease. It may be 
ours, in that new and heavenly sphere, to rise from stage to 
stage in perfect bliss, sounding depth and solving problem, 
seeing as we are seen, and reaching heights of thought, from 
which, when we look back on all that we deemed grandest 
here, we shall regard them but as child-experiences in the 
comprehensiveness and magnificence of those attainments 
which eternity shall evolve and sustain. 



CHAPTER XL 

The Antiquity of Man— The Bible Chronology— The 
Chronology of Geologists. 

"And while the student of nature goes on honestly, patiently, diffi- 
dently, observing and storing up his observations, and carrying his 
reasonings unflinchingly to their legitimate conclusions, convinced that 
it would be treason to the majesty at once of science and of religion, if 
he sought to help either by swerving ever so little from the straight rule 
of truth ; yet he does all this under a reverent sense of responsibility, 
fostered and deepened by his religious convictions." — The Archbishop of 
Canterbury. 

WE have reached another and higher stage, but only 
to be beset by new difficulties. Such questions 
are pressed upon us as — When was Man created ? Through 
what periods has his history passed? Does the Bible chro- 
nology harmonise with those long ages through which, 
according to some distinguished geologists and archaeolo- 
gists, Man has existed? 

Before we enter on the discussion of the facts and infer- 
ences which they adduce, it is indispensable that we deter- 
mine what the Bible teaches on this subject, and what, 
consequently, we are really bound to defend. 

I. — The Bible Chronology, and its Teaching as to 
the Antiquity of Man. 

Much confusion and much unnecessary alarm have arisen 
from a disregard, on the part of Christian apologists, of what 
the Bible does teach concerning the Antiquity of Man ; and 
one of the benefits which extending science has conferred, 
has been to compel interpreters to look more closely to the 



196 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XI. 

Scriptures, and to remove every incrustation with which 
their predecessors may have encumbered the text. 

We have no definite Bible chronology. No texts give the 
date of either the Creation of Man or of the Deluge ; accord- 
ingly, the period between them is variously estimated. In 
the Hebrew chronology, for example, it is 1656 years; in 
the Samaritan, 1307 ; in the Septuagint, 2262 ; and in Jose- 
phus, 2256. The common conclusion that 6000 years make 
up man's history, cannot be positively established. While 
the chronology deduced from the Hebrew gives 4000 years 
between Adam and Jesus Christ, that of the Septuagint extends 
man's history by 1500 years, making the period of his exist- 
ence 5532, years; and some increase this difference by 120 
years more. We have to deal with the question, it is true, only 
in relation to the history of man since the Deluge, but the 
same elasticity is apparent in the chronology after the flood 
as before it. As part of the Scripture genealogies is definite 
and part indefinite, we have no means of determining satis- 
factorily what is the length of Man's history; or, in other 
words, the Antiquity of the race. The conseqence is, that, 
apart altogether from recent geological disquisitions, different 
dates and periods have been stated and resolutely defended. 
Ussher, Hales, Petavius, Jackson, Poole, and Bunsen, for 
example, have published widely varying results. By a close 
examination of the separate genealogical tables, we are taught 
other than purely historical truths, and we may well pause 
before concluding that they are meant merely as a basis for 
any chronological system whatever. 1 While many systems 
have been advocated in avowed and irreconcilable opposi- 
tion to the Bible, it is evident that the differences, even among 



1 See an instructive article, Does Scripture settle the Antiquity of Man ? 
in the "British and Foreign Evangelical Review," by Rev. Malcolm 
White, M.A. January, 1872. 



CHAP. XI.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 197 

those who are devout believers in its reliableness, are such 
that no sane man can dogmatise as to its chronology. "The 
extreme uncertainty," says Dr. Hodge, "attending all at- 
tempts to determine the chronology of the Bible, is suffi- 
ciently evinced by the fact, that one hundred and eighty 
different calculations have been made by Jewish and Christian 
authors, of the length of the period between Adam and Christ. 
The longest of them make it six thousand nine hundred and 
eighty-four, and the shortest, three thousand four hundred 
and eighty-three years. Under these circumstances, it is 
very clear that the friends of the Bible have no occasion for 
uneasiness. If the facts of science or of history should 
ultimately make it necessary to admit that eight or ten 
thousand years have elapsed since the creation of man, there 
is nothing in the Bible in the way of such concession. The 
Scriptures do not teach us how long men have existed on 
the earth. Their tables of genealogy were intended to prove 
that Christ was the son of David and of the Seed of Abraham, 
and not how many years have elapsed between the creation 
and the advent." 1 Although eight or ten thousand years 
are insignificant, compared with the long periods over which 
geologists carry the history of man, they may prove ultimately 
more than sufficient to cover the facts alike of science and of 
history. But while it is acknowledged that we have no rigid 
chronological system in the Bible on which to fall back, that 
admission is widely different from accepting the conclusions 
of the geologist, and attempting to force the Bible into 
harmony with them. 

Let us now examine 

II. — The Chronology of the Geologists. 

Of all the sciences, geology is, in many respects, the most 

1 "Systematic Theology," vol. II., p. 41. By Charles Hodge, D.D, 



198 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XI. 

indefinite. The data are uncertain, and conclusions as to 
Time are generally so vague as to be almost useless. The 
problems of the geologist, like those of the mechanic, depend 
for their solution on the elements of Force and Time. Let 
force be increased, and time may be lessened ; but let time 
be prolonged, and a correspondingly lessened force mil pro- 
duce the same result as a greater force in shorter time. The 
geologist, therefore, in looking only to results, may make the 
time long or short which was necessary to produce certain 
effects, according as he makes the elements of long time or 
of great force predominate. 

Looking into the immeasurable Past, he endeavours to 
break it into indefinite sections by such terms as "eras," 
" epochs," and " cycles ;" and he has introduced a vague 
chronology by speaking of Time as pre-geological, geological, 
and historical. That remote period which starts on its 
course backward from the date of the first fossil, is pre- 
geological; the period extending from the first fossil to the 
first man, is geological; and that which follows is historical, 
as more or less strictly related to man. 1 Dr. Page regards 
the first as an abysm which the human intellect, in even 
its boldest moods, shrinks from exploring. But there are 
workers in Natural Philosophy busy with problems which lie 
beyond the sphere of the geologist, and by whose labours the 
whole question of Time may be soon reduced within a more 
manageable compass than at present. This remark applies 
also to the historical period, which, in its divisions and in its 
extent, is still wrapped in obscurity. We are, as yet, only 
on the verge of this great field of inquiry, and while theories 
are admissible, perhaps in the meantime indispensable, 
dogmatism can be the sign only of weakness or ignorance. 

1 "The Past and Present Life of the Globe," by Dr. Page, p. 219. 



CHAP. XI.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 199 

Our investigation is for the present limited to the 
geological period which has been designated the historical, 
or rather to that which is connected with Prehistoric 
Archeology, in as far as it mingles its facts with those of 
geology. The two sciences are interwoven. As in the one, 
a stone hatchet, a flint arrow-head, a fragment of pottery, 
will shed historical light on the purpose for which it was 
made, and on the degree of intelligence then existing; so, in 
the other science, a leaf, a shell, or a fragment of bone will 
reveal what the climate was, as well as the other conditions 
in which man then lived; and both together will contribute 
to reveal the character of man and the circumstances of his 
home. 

It is with this period alone we have to do at present; but 
although it is the most recent, and although its facts are with- 
in common reach, much diversity of opinion and inference pre- 
vails. Although agreed in claiming immensity of time, geolo- 
gists are by no means at one regarding any definite period for 
man's history. Wallace is tolerably certain that man has 
run a course of a thousand centuries, but he does not see 
any evidence against his having existed " ten thousand 
centuries;" 1 and he assumes that there was a time "when 
he had the form, but hardly the nature, of man ; when he 
neither possessed human speech, nor those sympathetic and 
moral feelings which, in a greater or less degree, everywhere 
now distinguish the race." 2 Similar views are held by 
Darwin, Sir Charles Lyell, and Professor Huxley. On this 
point their only difference consists in the duration of the 
history they assign to man. Professor Fuhlroth of Elberfeld, 
in his work on the " Neanderthal Fossil Man," tells us that 
" it reaches back to a period of from 200,000 to 300,000 

1 " Natural Selection," p. 303. 2 Ibid, pp. 322, 323. 



200 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XL 

years ;" and some enthusiastic anthropologists have put in 
the modest claim for man of 9,000,000 years. This amazing 
elasticity is utterly inconsistent with the principles of scien- 
tific investigation. The geological chronologists are evidently 
without such definite data as are indispensable even for 
judicious conjecture, and they are exposing their own weak- 
ness, as guides of scientific thought, by such hap-hazard 
inferences. Our hope is, that Natural Philosophy will soon 
correct the vagaries of Natural Science, through such 
application of principles as Sir W. Thomson has already 
indicated. It will most probably be found that the physical 
conditions of our globe were, in those distant periods, un- 
suitable for man ; or, failing this, it may be ascertained that, 
if so many hundred thousand years are demanded for man's 
history, — confessedly the latest in the geological records, — 
there cannot be obtained suitable and sufficiently extended 
periods for the life-histories of those creatures which pre- 
ceded man in successive formations, until we are landed in 
that time during which, as Sir W. Thomson has demonstrated, 
no life could have possibly existed. When it is borne in 
mind that these far-separated chronological conclusions have 
been deduced from precisely the same facts, he must be 
credulous, indeed, who places any faith in them. 

But, at the same time, as these conclusions carry the 
Antiquity of Man far beyond the Bible record, it becomes us 
to examine carefully the facts on which they rest. We have 
done so, and the history of the inferences based upon them 
by no means increases our confidence in the chronological 
guidance which has been offered to us. Allusion has been 
already made to the nearly perfect human skeletons which 
were found imbedded in what at first appeared to be old 
limestone, on the mainland of Guadaloupe ; and to the fact 
that, after a keen discussion, and a temporary triumph on the 



CHAP. XI.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 201 

side of the opponents of the Bible, it was discovered that the 
limestone was a recent formation, and that the age of the 
skeletons could not be much more than two hundred years. 
A similar agitation was produced when the foot-prints of 
man were discovered on limestone, and described in the 
"American Journal of Science," and a similar collapse 
followed when Dr. Dale Owen proved that they had been 
traced by an Indian tribe. 

A mass of conglomerate rock was found in 1831 at the 
depth of ten feet below the bed of the River Don in Derby- 
shire ; and had there been found in that mass, as there 
might have been, portions of any human skeleton, and 
nothing more, there would have gone forth to all parts of the 
civilised world the conclusion that additional proof had been 
obtained that man existed hundreds of thousands of years 
before the earliest possible date in Scripture chronology; 
but, very awkwardly for the advocates of a vast antiquity, 
the discovery of several silver coins of the reign of Edward 
the First, showed that the conglomerate rock was only about 
six hundred years old. 

Not dissimilar has been the history of Mr. Leonard 
Horner's famous discovery in the Nile deposit. Having 
been entrusted in 1851, by the Royal Society of London, to 
make a series of borings in the sediment of the River Nile, 
Mr. Horner employed several engineers and sixty workmen, 
and did his appointed work very efficiently. Shafts and 
borings were made at intervals across the valley from east 
to west ; and, in the course of the excavations, they brought 
to the surface jars, vases, pots, a small human figure in burnt 
clay, and several pieces of burnt brick, obtained at various 
depths, but sometimes as low as sixty feet. Minute calcula- 
tions of time were instantly prosecuted. Assuming a certain 
thickness of mud deposit in a century, it was announced that 



202 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XI. 

the pieces of burnt brick were 12,000 years old. Another 
fragment was found at the depth of seventy-two feet, and 
having been connected with a somewhat different rate of cal- 
culation, led to the conclusion that it was 30,000 years old. 
So on they went with facts and inferences, until it was ascer- 
tained, unfortunately for the theorists, that confounding 
witnesses were forthcoming. A piece of pottery, which must 
have been made, as they asserted, before the historic period, 
turned out to be of Roman manufacture ; and in the deepest 
boring of all, at the foot of the statue of Rameses II., the dis- 
covery of the Grecian honeysuckle, marked on some of those 
mysterious fragments which they imagined to be prehistoric, 
proved that it could not have been older than the age of 
Alexander the Great. When Sir R. Stephenson was engineer- 
ing in the neighbourhood of Damietta, he found, at a greater 
depth than Mr. Horner reached, a brick bearing on it the 
stamp of Mohammed Ali ! x The attempt to neutralise the 
damaging effects of these facts, by showing that the Egyptians 
of old did burn bricks, has been fruitless ; and men of his own 
school have become ashamed of Sir Charles Lyell's some- 
what careful exposition of Mr.- Horner's "preposterous" cal- 
culations, and regret that he " should have thought it worth 
while to notice such absurdities." It is, however, but just to 
Sir Charles to state, that while he is careful in giving Mr. 
Horner's facts, and seems anxious to defend his inferences, 
he admits that Egyptologists do not consider his experiments 
satisfactory for testing the age of a given thickness of the Nile 
sediment. 2 The changes in the River Nile, and the fuller 
knowledge of the action and the varying rate of deposits by 



1 "London Quarterly Review," p. 240, No. 51. 1866. 

2 "Geological Evidences for the Antiquity of Man," by Sir Charles 
Lyell, p. 38. 



CHAP. XI.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 203 

the Ganges and other great rivers, have turned the attention 
of the scientific world altogether aside from Mr. Horner's 
discoveries, as destitute of the least title to respect or acknow- 
ledgment. These and similar blunders by geologists of the 
highest standing, should render us very chary in accepting 
any of those generalisations which do not rest on a wide 
induction of facts. 

With the precautions which the history of this discussion 
has already suggested, we should not be deemed unnecessarily 
suspicious if we prefer waiting for fuller information before 
accepting facts and inferences, even when both appear to be 
worthy of an undisputed place in our investigations. Although 
we may be unable to explain some facts which seem to con- 
tradict or neutralise others, it is our duty to reject none, but 
to retain them, in the hope that their mutual relations may, 
in due time, be clearly established. As it is, of course, 
inadmissible, in a discussion of this kind, to ignore a single 
well-authenticated fact, because it may constitute the one 
link needed to give completeness to the evidence, it is 
necessary to sift, one by one, the whole series on which 
conclusions may rest regarding the Antiquity of Man. 

For the sake of distinctness, it may be better to group the 
evidence for man's antiquity under the three following 
divisions : — 

(1) The discovery of human remains in a fossil state, in 
strata, or deposits, and caves. 

(2) The discovery of flints and stone implements in connection 
with remains of extinct animals. And, 

(3) The existence of villages built on piles, in Switzerland 
and elsewhere. 

I. — 1. "The fossil man of Denise," found in a volcanic 
breccia, near the town of De Puy-en-Velay, in Central France, 
attracted, as in similar instances, the earnest attention of 



204 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XI. 

geologists \ but great doubt exists as to the genuineness of 
the skeleton. Sir Charles Lyell half admits the likelihood 
that imposition may have been practised on the scientific 
observers in that district, and does not deny the probability 
that certain slabs of tuff which contained human remains 
were tampered with. "Whether some of these were spurious 
or not," he says, "is a question more difficult to decide. 
One of them, now in the possession of M. Pichot-Dumazel, 
an advocate of Le Puy, is suspected of having had some 
plaster of Paris introduced into it to bind the bone& more 
firmly together in the loose volcanic tuff." 1 Sir Charles 
went in 1859 to Le Puy, to enquire into the authenticity of 
the bones and into their geological age; and he employed a 
labourer to make some fresh excavations, " in the hope of 
verifying the true position of the fossils; but all of this without 
success." He failed even to find in situ any exact counter- 
part of the stone of the Le Puy Museum. But apart from 
this side of the question, M. Felix Robert has decided that 
the tuff is "a product of the latest eruption of the volcano;" 2 
and M. Pichot is " satisfied that the fossil bones belonged 
to the period of the last volcanic eruptions ofVelay." 3 

2. The fossil human bone of Natchez, on the Mississippi, 
has been adduced as proving an antiquity of at least a 
hundred thousand years, but scarcely can any evidence be 
more precarious. Sir Charles Lyell himself does not insist 
on the facts as in any degree constituting reliable proof, but 
has suggested, as a possible explanation of the association 
of the human bone with the remains of extinct animals, that 
the former may possibly have been derived from the vegetable 
soil at the top of the cliff; whereas the latter may have been 
dislodged from a lower position, and both may have fallen 

1 "Antiquity of Man," p. 196. 2 Ibid, p. 167. 3 Ibid, p. 195. 



CHAP. XI.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 205 

into the same heap at the bottom of the ravine. The black 
colour of the human bone may have been acquired by its 
having lain for centuries in the dark superficial soil common 
in these regions, a supposition fully borne out by the fact 
that many human bones in old Indian graves, in the same 
district, have been stained of as black a dye. Sir Charles 
in part apologises for introducing this theory, and adds, "but 
so long as we have only one isolated case, and are without 
the testimony of a geologist who was present to behold the 
bone when still engaged in the matrix, and to extract it with 
his own hands, it is allowable to suspend our judgment as to 
the high antiquity of the fossil." 1 

We should rather say that it is not " allowable" to intro- 
duce such a case as in any shape calculated to shed light on 
this subject. It proves nothing, it confirms nothing. 

3. A human skeleton, found at a considerable depth 
near New Orleans, has been employed with a greater air of 
triumph than is usual, even with the eager advocates of a 
high antiquity for man. Sir Charles attaches considerable 
importance to this discovery, in connection with his estimate 
of the time during which the delta of the Mississippi has 
been formed. The area is 30,000 square miles ; the sedi- 
mentary matter has reached a depth of several hundred feet; 
and he approximates a minimum of time for this deposit by 
ascertaining, experimentally, the annual discharge of water 
by the river, and the mean annual amount of solid matter 
in its waters. " The lowest estimate of the time required 
would lead us to assign a high antiquity, amounting to many 
tens of thousands of years (probably more than an 100,000) 
to the existing delta." In one part of this delta, when 
carrying a large excavation through a succession of beds 

1 "Antiquity of Man," pp. 202, 203. 



206 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XI. 

made up chiefly of vegetable matter, the workmen passed 
"four buried forests superimposed one upon the other;" 
and at the depth of sixteen feet, they " found some charcoal 
and a human skeleton." By making certain assumptions as 
to the age of the successive forests, Dr. Dowler has assigned 
to the skeleton an antiquity of 50,000 years ! 

It will be observed that the four superimposed forests are 
comprised within sixteen feet, — in itself a very improbable 
circumstance, — and it may be added, that Sir Charles has 
evidently misgivings as to the calculations of Dr. Dowler, 
for he is careful to state that, as the discovery in question 
had not been made when he saw the excavation in progress 
at the Gas Works, in 1846, he "cannot form an opinion as 
to the value of the chronological calculations which have 
led Dr. Dowler to ascribe to this skeleton an antiquity of 
50,000 years." 1 The estimate of time by Dr. Dowler is one 
of those random guesses which are becoming almost in- 
tolerably frequent in professedly scientific investigations. 
Sir Charles himself has given an entirely different estimate 
of the required time, when, in his work, " Second Visit to 
the United States," he quotes a -writer in "Silliman's Journal" 
regarding the growth of the cypress swamp : — " Sections of 
such filled-up cypress basins, exposed by the changes in the 
position of the river, exhibit undisturbed, perfect, and erect 
stumps, in a series of every elevation with respect to each 
other, extending from high-water mark down to at least 
twenty-five feet below, measuring out a time when not less 
than ten fully-matured cypress grotvths must have succeeded 
each other, the average of whose age could not have been 
less than four hundred years, — thus making an aggregate of 
4000 years since the first cypress tree vegetated in the basin. 

1 "Antiquity of Man," pp. 43, 44. 



CHAP. XI.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 207 

There are also instances where prostrate trunks, of huge 
dimensions, are found imbedded in the clay, immediately 
over which are erect stumps of trees, numbering no less than 
800 concentric layers." 1 Let it be borne in mind, that the 
skeleton for which Dr. Dowler claimed a history^of 50,000 
years, was discovered under four of ^these^long "buried 
forests" or "cypress growths;" and that, ^as the writer in 
"Silliman's Journal" assigns' 5 to each a minimum of four 
hundred years, the antiquity of the skeletonTmight not be 
more than sixteen hundred years, even when admitting that 
the fact has been accurately stated. But is it not as 
probable that the human body may. have sunk through the 
soft mud in a section of the swamp, or that some surface 
layer overlying a narrow opening, and yielding, may have 
allowed the skeleton to fall, within the last few hundred 
years, to the place in which it was found ? 

Sir Charles Lyell's estimate of the time "during which 
the present delta of the Mississippi has been in existence, 
is altogether unsatisfactory ; and his demand for more than 
100,000 years has not been honoured by those who have 
given special attention to this subject, and who have placed 
together such data as warrant the inference that no more 
than 4000 years has been required for the" formation of the 
delta from, at least, a hundred miles above New Orleans. 2 
The movements of rivers are so unsteady, and the rate of 
deposit so varied, that no claim as to^man'sjantiquity can 
safely be made to depend Jon them. The experience of 
"An Old Indigo Planter," as d given [injthe^" Athenaeum," is 
significant : — " Having lived many years on the banks of the 
Ganges," he says, "I have seen Tthe [streamJ[encroach on a 



1 " Silliman's Journal," Second Series, vol. V., p. 17. January, 1848. 
2 " What is Truth?" by Rev. E. Burgess, pp. 298, 299. 



208 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XI. 

village, undermining the bank where it stood, and deposit, 
as a natural result, bricks, pottery, &c, in the bottom of the 
stream. On one occasion, I am certain that the depth of 
the stream, where the bank was breaking, was above forty 
feet; yet, in three years, the current of the river drifted so 
much, that a fresh deposit of soil took place over the debris 
of the village, and the earth was raised to a level with the 
old bank. Now, had our traveller obtained a bit of 
pottery from where it had lain for only three years, could he 
reasonably draw the inference that it had been made 13,000 
years before ? " 1 

Dr. Page justly sneers at the attempt to chronologize 
through the facts by which some have elaborated con- 
clusions, and tells us truly that we have yet no means of 
estimating aright geological time, and no power to give it 
expression in years and centuries : — " Many ingenious cal- 
culations/' he says, "have no doubt been made to ap- 
proximate the dates of certain geological events ; but these, 
it must be confessed, are more amusing than instructive. 
For example, so many lines of mud are annually laid down 
by the inundation of the Nile, fragments of pottery have 
been found at the depth of thirty feet ; — how many years 
since the pottery was first imbedded ? Again, the ledges of 
Niagara are wasting at the rate of so many feet per 
century ; — how many years must the river have taken to cut 
its way back from Queenstown to the present Falls ? . . . 
For these and similar computations, it will be at once per- 
ceived that we want the necessary uniformity of factor ; and 
until we can bring elements of calculation as exact as those 
of astronomy to bear on geological chronology, it will be 
better to regard our 'eras/ and ' epochs/ and 'cycles/ 

1 See "The Truth of the Bible," by the Rev. B. W. Savile, p. 116. 



CHAP. XI.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 209 

as so many terms indefinite in their duration, but sufficient 
for the magnitude of the operations embraced within their 
limit." x This admission, by such a geologist as Dr. Page, 
sufficiently vindicates the unwillingness of Bible students to 
accept, as correct, the inferences as to time which many are 
pressing upon them. 

4. Much interest has from time to time been awakened 
by the discovery of human bones in caves; and attempts have 
been eagerly made to prove an extravagant antiquity for 
man from their position and their connection with other 
bones. Details have been published regarding the caves 
and fissures in England, in France, in Germany, in Hungary, 
in Canada, and elsewhere ; but it is unnecessary to discuss 
them here separately, as there is remarkable similarity in the 
facts, as well as in the conclusions to which they have led. 
Those that are typical may sufficiently indicate the amount 
and kind of evidence which have been brought forward, and 
within what limits the discussion should be conducted. 

At Hoxne, in Suffolk, in the beginning of this century, 
and later, not only in the caves of Gower, in Glamorganshire, 
but in various other localities in England, flint implements 
have been found so associated with the bones of extinct 
animals, that a long chronology would be required to reach 
their origin. In the Bize cavern, in the department of the 
Aude, human bones, with fragments of rude pottery, were 
mingled with land-shells of living species, and with the 
bones of extinct animals. Similar researches brought to 
light similar facts in the cavern of Pondres, near Nismes ; 
but of these results no less an authority than M. Desnoyers 
has said, — "The flint hatchets and arrow-heads, and the 
pointed bones and coarse pottery of many French and 

1 "The Past and Present Life of the Globe," p. 220. 
P 



210 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XL 

English caves, agree precisely in character with those found 
in the tumuli, and under the dolmens (rude altars of unhewn 
stone) of the primitive inhabitants of Gaul, Britain, and 
Germany. The human bones, therefore, in the caves, 
which are associated with such fabricated objects, must 
belong, not to antediluvian periods, but to a people in the 
same stage of civilisation as those who constructed the 
tumuli and altars." 1 Sir Charles himself, after visiting 
several caves in Germany, and after weighing the arguments 
of both M. Desnoyers and Dr. Buckland, has come to the 
conclusion that the human bones mixed with those of 
extinct animals in cavern-mud, in different parts of Europe, 
"were probably not coeval. The caverns having been at 
one period the dens of wild beasts, and having served at 
other times as places of human habitation, worship, 
sepulture, concealment, or defence, one might easily con- 
ceive that the bones of man and those of animals, which 
were strewed over the floors of subterranean cavities, or 
which had fallen into tortuous rents connecting them with the 
surface, might, when swept away by floods, be mingled in one 
promiscuous heap in the same ossiferous mud or breccia." 2 

Dr. Schmerling of Liege, with rare enthusiasm, examined 
more than forty caverns in his neighbourhood, and made 
some very remarkable discoveries ; yet they bear no direct 
evidence for a distant antiquity. Sir Charles adopts Dr. 
Schmerling's doctrine, "that most of the materials, organic 
or inorganic, now filling the caverns, have been washed into 
them through narrow, vertical, or oblique fissures, the upper 
extremities of which are choked up with soil and gravel." 3 

What has become of chief interest in Dr. Schmerling's 

1 Quoted by Sir C. Lyell in "Antiquity of Man," p. 61. 
2 "Antiquity of Man," p. 62. 3 Ibid, p. 70. 



CHAP. XI.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 211 

investigations, is his finding in the Engis cave the remains 
of three human beings, and, among them, that skull which, 
in contrast with the Neanderthal skull, found in 1857, has 
excited so much keen debate. 

The discussion, though not lying very properly within 
this part of our subject, may be noticed in passing. 

The Engis skull was unequivocally so much older than 
the Neanderthal, judging from the position in which it was 
found, that, if there had been truth in the theories regarding 
the gradual development of the race, it should have been 
greatly less in its intellectual promise than the other \ and 
yet, to the utter confusion of all theorists, it approached 
very near to the highest or Caucasian type ; while of the 
other, Professor Huxley has admitted that "it is the most 
brutal of all known human skulls." l 

Baffled by the contradiction which these two skulls gave, 
not only to the theory of " periods," but to the theory of 
physical and intellectual evolution, theorists take refuge in 
the declaration that the first traces of the primordial stock 
whence man has proceeded must be looked for in far older 
formations than those hitherto examined. The Neanderthal 
skull has come forth as a resolute witness against the doctrine 
of the progressive development of the cranium, and has given 
a decided check to hasty speculation. Sir Charles Lyell 
admits that these two skulls have created very great surprise ; 
because the one, which by common consent is so old, is, 
notwithstanding, of the highest or Caucasian type ; and the 
other, which is admitted to be without any claims to antiquity, 
has departed so far from the normal standard of humanity, 
that it will not piece into the development theory. But if 
this skull, which is low in size and conformation, had been 



1 See Professor Huxley's Paper in "Antiquity of Man," pp. 80, 89. 



212 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XI. 

found in the position of the other, and the other had 
chanced to occupy its place, the reasoning on behalf of this 
theory would have been intolerant, and doubters would have 
been unsparingly denounced as bigots. 

Of other instances given, it may be sufficient to notice 
only one. At Aurignac, in the south of France, an opening 
into a cave was accidentally discovered in 1852, and in it 
were found seventeen human skeletons, which were speedily 
removed and buried in the neighbouring cemetery. About 
eight years afterwards, M. Lartet examined the cave-remains; 
and although he failed to obtain any satisfactory information 
regarding the human skeletons, he assigned to them a remote 
antiquity, along with the implements and other bones which 
he obtained. Sir Charles Lyell, however, does not think that 
the facts which M. Lartet has stated add anything to the 
evidence in favour of man's antiquity. l 

The conclusion of Dr. Page, in reference to all these 
cave-finds, is confirmatory of the views which we have 
expressed regarding the uncertainty or unreliableness of the 
reasoning by which it has been attempted to carry the 
antiquity of man into immeasurably distant periods. After 
taking into consideration the facts which have been stated 
in relation to the formation and age of peat-mosses, and to 
remains in cave-earth, he is not sure whether the older 
bones of the extinct animals " may not have been washed 
up, drifted, and reassorted from earlier deposits." That 
very possibility gives an insecure footing to those who would 
establish inferences on such data. The human skeletons 
which have been found in caverns he regards as being but 
of yesterday, when geologically estimated, and " dating back, 
at the utmost, but a few thousand years." 2 

1 " Antiquity of Man," p. 189. ' 
2 " Geology, Advanced Text-Book," p. 382. 



CHAP. XI.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 213 

This conclusion is all the more satisfactory, as given by 
one of the most independent and cautious of geologists, and 
should encourage Bible students to cherish a deeper con- 
fidence in the principles which many are assailing. 

II. The evidence of antiquity, dependent on the connection 
of Flint Arrow-Heads and other stone implements with 
the remains of extinct animals, and which is closely related 
to that of the human skeletons whose history we have been 
examining, has of late been very constantly pressed into 
service by avowed opponents of the Bible. 

As intimately connected with the discovery of human 
skeletons in the position referred to, we may here notice the 
finding of human relics in Danish peat, in the valley of 
Somme, and in various caves. 

The Danish peat has a chronological history assigned to 
it, dependent — first, on its rate of growth ; — and second, on 
the trees which have successively lived in the course of its 
formation. In the lowest, and therefore oldest stratum of 
the peat, the Scotch fir, which is not now a native of the 
Danish islands, flourished and disappeared long ago. On a 
higher level, and in a subsequent period, the oak succeeded 
the Scotch fir ; and " after flourishing for ages," was in turn 
displaced by the beech. 1 Danish naturalists and anti- 
quarians have connected with these trees, respectively, the 
stone, bronze, and iron periods. In the oldest formation, 
deep in the peat, and under the trunk of a pine tree, 
Steenstrup found a flint instrument; and on these facts, 
calculations have been made by which some geologists 
have determined the antiquity of man. 

"What may be the antiquity," says Sir Charles Lyell, "of 
the earliest human remains preserved in the Danish peat, 

1 " Antiquity of Man," by Sir Charles Lyell, p. 9 and p. 372. 



214 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XI. 

cannot be estimated in centuries with any approach to 
accuracy. In the first place, in going back to the bronze 
age, we already find ourselves beyond the reach of history, 
or even of tradition. In the time of the Romans, the 
Danish isles were covered, as now, with magnificent beech 
forests. Nowhere in the world does this tree flourish more 
luxuriantly than in Denmark, and eighteen centuries seem 
to have done little or nothing towards modifying the 
character of the forest vegetation. Yet, in the antecedent 
bronze period, there were no beech trees, or, at most, but a 
few stragglers, — the country being covered with oak. In 
the age of stone, again, the Scotch fir prevailed, and already 
there were human inhabitants in those old pine forests. 
How many generations of each species of tree flourished in 
succession before the pine was supplanted by the oak, and 
the oak by the beech, can be but vaguely conjectured \ but 
the minimum of time required for the formation of so much 
peat, must, according to the estimate of Steenstmp, and 
other good authorities, have amounted to at least 4000 
years : and there is nothing in the observed rate of growth 
of peat opposed to the conclusion that the number of 
centuries may not have been four times as great, even 
though the signs of man's existence have not yet been 
traced down to the lowest or amorphous stratum." x 

This calculation as to time must be very uncertain, 
because we as yet know little or nothing of the physical 
conditions under which the moss, during its different stages, 
was deepened. Mosses are formed with comparative rapidity 
in moist and cold districts, through fallen trees and the 
stagnation of water giving rise to marshiness. Although 
in a warm climate decayed timber would immediately be 

1 "Antiquity of Man," pp. 16, 17. 



CHAP. XI.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 215 



removed by insects or by putrefaction, in the cold temper- 
ature now prevailing in our latitude, many examples are 
recorded of marshes originating in this source; and Sir 
Charles Lyell admits that in Mar forest, in Aberdeenshire, 
large trunks of Scotch fir, which had fallen from age and 
decay, were soon immured in peat} And he distinctly states 
that the overthrow of a forest by a storm, about the middle 
of the seventeenth century, gave rise to a peat-moss near 
Loch Broom, in Ross-shire, where, in less than half a century 
after the fall of the trees, the inhabitants dug peat. 2 He 
admits, further, that such events were by no means uncom- 
mon in either Britain or the Continent ; and the obvious 
and natural question suggested is, May not many storms 
have produced similar changes in the Scotch fir and oak 
forests in the Danish islands, so that the growth of moss 
may have been rapid as it was in Ross-shire, and in other 
localities in Scotland and Wales about which reliable in- 
formation has been obtained ? 

Among other interesting instances of the growth of moss, 
may be mentioned those of Hatfield in Yorkshire, and 
Kincardine in Scotland. In Hatfield moss, which was 
evidently a forest eighteen centuries ago, fir trees have been 
found ninety feet long, and oaks one hundred feet \ but at 
the bottom of the mosses, strange to say, Roman roads 
have been discovered, showing that the mosses have grown 
since the Roman invasion. "All the coins, axes, arms, 
and other utensils found in British and French mosses, are 
also Roman, — so that a considerable portion of the peat in 
European peat-bogs is evidently not more than the age of 
Julius Caesar. Nor can any vestiges of the ancient forests 
described by that General along the great Roman way in 

1 Lyell's " Principles of Geology," p. 720. 2 Ibid, p. 721, 



216 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. Xi. 

Britain be discovered, except in the ruined trunks of trees 
in peat." * When we take these and similar instances into 
account, we are justified in regarding as altogether visionary 
those calculations in which M. Perthes and others have 
indulged, when they have speculated regarding time, and 
have claimed tens of thousands of years for the formation of a 
moss only thirty feet in thickness. In an interesting little 
work by the Rev. J. Brodie, 2 there is reference to the Roman 
road in Scotland as covered by eight feet of moss, and as 
laid bare fifty or sixty years ago : and he supposes that this 
road could not have been made before the year of our Lord 
200, that being the date at which the Roman conquests 
were pushed farthest into Britain ; and, assuming the rate of 
growth in the peat to have been uniform from that time, 
Mr. Brodie infers that there would be six inches of increase 
in a century, — not an inch and fifth, as M. de Perthes 
has calculated. 

The uncertainty of those causes which determine the 
age of peat mosses, is made still more apparent by com- 
paring the facts in Europe with those of America. To 
the authority of Professor C. Hitchcock few will hesitate to 
submit j and his conclusion is, that "the growth of peat is 
extremely variable, even in contiguous swamps. It accumulates 
much more rapidly in the primitive forest than after clearings 
have been effected, chiefly, perhaps, because in a wooded 
country rain is more common, as any-one who has travelled 
in a wild northern region cannot have failed to notice." 
Comparing the rate of growth where the country has been 
to a large extent cleared, with the rate of growth where 
there has been no such clearance, the Professor has come to 



1 Lyell's " Principles of Geology," p. 721. 

2 "The Antiquity and Nature of Man," by the Rev. J. Brodie, 
M.A., pp. 49, 50, 



CHAP. XI.]- BLENDING LIGHTS. 217 

definite conclusions as to the variableness of the growth. 
Supposing that the original Danish forest of Scotch fir may 
have been destroyed by fire in a single season, as often 
happens in North America, he affirms that the blackened 
trunks would be replaced by the "second growth," con- 
sisting in America of the birch, poplar, and similar trees, 
and that in two or three centuries the new forest would be 
thoroughly established. In Denmark, while the second 
forest was of oak, and was succeeded by a third, consisting 
of beech trees, he does not admit that the whole forest 
would have been exclusively made up of any one of the 
three, — firs, oaks, or beeches : " Our primitive forests com- 
monly contain a 'mixed growth/ — it is generally very 
limited valleys or hill-tops that are covered by only one 
kind of tree ; pine, spruce, juniper, and maple, are inter- 
mixed in equal proportions in some regions, while oak, 
hickory, and chestnut predominate elsewhere. Observation 
would therefore indicate the probability of a mixed growth 
in the stone and bronze as well as in the iron age. For 
this reason, we must leave a margin in our calculations of 
time from the succession of forests, — certain districts having 
the oaks predominating longer than others, may have been 
those taken for calculating. Estimating from these new 
standpoints, we may say that the minimum required to pro- 
duce the changes observed in the Danish forests, may be two 
thousand years." x 

Other elements, necessarily entering into the probabilities 
of the question of time, increase the difficulties of cal- 
culation. Trees growing on the edges of the moss fall over 
on its surface, and are in turn covered over; slips which 



1 Quoted by Professor Duns, in "Science and Christian Thought," 
246. 



2l8 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XL 



are not uncommon might carry different trees into the moss, 
and rains falling, or water oozing into the edges or the 
centre of the moss, might give it a fluidity not at all un- 
common, which might admit of flint or other implements 
gradually sinking to a considerable depth. It appears 
preposterous to found any conclusion as to time on the 
fact of implements being discovered at any depth in moss. 
If traces of man's presence in a definite form, — as the 
Roman roads at the depth of eight feet in the Hatfield 
moss, — or if evidences of human action on any of the sunken 
trees were adduced, there would be greater plausibility in 
the arguments by which their conclusions are vindicated. 

Sir Charles Lyell himself, after reviewing the calculations in 
which "archaeologists and geologists of merit have indulged, 
in the hope of arriving at some positive dates," has given, 
as his conclusion, that they are only " tentative," — in short, 
only "a rough approximation of the truth." Although 
4000 and 7000 years before our time have been assigned 
for the history of certain events and monuments, he candidly 
admits " that much collateral evidence will be required to 
confirm these estimates, and to decide whether the number 
of centuries has been under or over-rated." x 

2. Another prominent instance of flint implements made 
by man, and on which, in reasoning, much stress has been 
laid, has been adduced from the valley of the Somme, in 
Picardy, France. Referring to geological treatises for a 
minute description of the valley, we shall limit our state- 
ment to such details as are required for forming a fair 
estimate of the argument. The chalk formation originally 
occupied the whole district ; but, by degrees, a stream began 
to. flow across this chalky region, and a valley was formed, 

1 "Antiquity of Man," p. 373. 



CHAP. XI.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 219 

which, in the bottom, has an average width of a mile. In 
the lowest part of the valley is a bed of gravel, from three to 
fourteen feet thick ; and on this, separated by a thin layer 
of clay, there is a growth of peat from ten to thirty feet in 
depth, through which the river is flowing. On the sides of 
the valley are beds of gravel resembling ancient river banks, 
the lower of which is close on the peat, while the upper is 
from eighty to a hundred feet higher. It is in these gravel 
beds that, mingled with bones of animals now extinct, 
various tools of flint, spear-heads, &c, have been found. 
Two arguments for the antiquity of the race have been based 
on the fact of the remains which have been associated 
together. The first is, that the men who used the flint 
instruments lived with races of animals long extinct ; and 
the second is, that a long period was required for the 
geological changes which have subsequently taken place. 

But the mere fact that man was contemporaneous with 
animals now extinct, can prove nothing in reference to his 
antiquity. The animals may have been lingering through a 
gradual extinction to his day, or man may have begun to 
exist when their race was vigorous. A writer in the "West- 
minster Review," who strongly pleads for man's remote 
antiquity, has frankly admitted that the argument from coin- 
cidence of remains goes for nothing — " Since many species 
of animals, whose first introduction dates much further back 
in geological time, are at present contemporaneous with man ; 
and carcasses once frozen up might be preserved for 
thousands of years as well as for hundreds, for millions as 
well as for thousands." 1 The late Professor Rogers, writing 
in " Blackwood's Magazine," reasoned powerfully to the 
same effect, — that geologists too hastily gave to the Diluvium 

1 "Westminster Review," April, 1863. 



2 20 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XI. 

a remote antiquity ; that its relation to historic time is not 
ascertainable; and that it is every whit as natural and as 
logical to infer the relative recency of these now extinct 
animals because the works of man are found with them, as 
it is to infer the antiquity of man from the assumed greater 
age of these animals. He insists that a specially remote age 
is not necessarily attributable to the flint-shaping men of the 
Diluvium because of their living at the same timejvith the 
mammoth, and that, if their association is to be held proving 
along prehistoric antiquity, other evidences must be obtained. 1 

It is obvious that this line of exposition may be legitimately 
extended to meet all the instances in which flint and other 
stone implements have been found mixed with the bones of 
extinct animals. Their coincidence proves nothing as to 
remoteness of time in man's history. 

The second form of the argument depends on the length 
of time required for geological changes which have taken place 
since the extinct animals and man have been supposed to 
live together. Geologists are not agreed regarding Xhtjige 
of the beds in which the flint implements have been found. 
Mr. Prestwich has concluded that the evidence requires of 
us to bring forward the extinct animals towards our own time, 
as much as it does to carry man back toward their supposed 
place in geological time. The discussion has oscillated 
between those who admit the probability of unexpected 
temporary convulsions or violent movements, and those who 
advocate undeviating uniformity. While Sir Charles heads 
the latter in Britain, the late Sir R. Murchison, an authority 
equally high, led those geologists who resist the attempt to 
account, by slow and uniform processes, for all the pheno-' 
mena which are presented. The two methods in nature, 

1 "Blackwood's Magazine," October, i860; pp. 428, 431. 



CHAP. XI.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 221 



if we so designate them, almost invariably go together j and 
if this be granted, we may, without much difficulty, rest 
assured that such rapid changes took place as are adequate 
to explain the facts by which so many are at present per- 
plexed. Dr. Duns, after referring to Sir C. Lyell's descrip- 
tion of the erosive action of running water, and his 
illustration of its force by the river Simeto making its passage, 
in the course of two centuries, through the lava of Etna 
(which had dammed up its bed in 1603), by opening 
through the solid mass a channel varying in width from fifty 
to several hundred feet, and in depth, in some parts, from 
forty to fifty feet, puts this apt question, " If the Simeto has, 
in two hundred years, cut a ravine through hard volcanic 
rock a hundred feet wide and fifty deep, how long would the 
Somme take to excavate its present valley in the soft chalk 
rocks over which it runs ? In the latter case, we have not 
hundreds of years, but thousands at our disposal." 1 While 
there were at work other agencies than this erosion by 
water, its influence ought surely to be fairly estimated as 
producing geological changes. 

In an able paper on Valley Gravels, which Mr. Alfred 
Tylor read at the Geological Society, the not uncommon 
supposition was maintained, that the drift of the Somme 
valley was of Marine origin, and that the flint [ implements 
had been introduced by floods, and were of recent date. 
While resisting both conclusions, Mr. Prestwich confessed 
that he regarded the gravels as having been deposited by 
forces far more powerful than any recognised at the present 
day, and that the time for producing the results now visible 
was therefore comparatively short. Sir Roderick Murchison 
has emphatically stated, in reference to a corresponding 



Science and Christian Thought," pp. 273, 274. 



222 BLENDING LIGHTS. [chap. XI. 



subject, that " no analogy of tidal or fluviatile action can 
explain either the condition or position of the debris and un- 
rolled flints and bones. On the contrary, by referring their 
distribution to those great oscillations and ruptures by which 
the earth's surface has been so powerfully affected in former 
times, we may well imagine how the large area under con- 
sideration was suddenly broken up and submerged. . . . 
In short, the cliffs of Brighton afford distinct proofs that a 
period of perfect quiescence and ordinary shore action, very 
modern in geological parlance, but very ancient as respects 
history, was followed by oscillations and violent fractures of 
the crust, producing the tumultuous accumulations to which 
attention has been drawn." 1 

In the view of these oscillations, and their occasionally 
violent movements, sometimes extended and sometimes 
limited in their area, we cannot reckon on long periods for 
producing effects which may have been rapidly accomplished, 
nor can we determine when these may or may not recur in 
the physical history of the earth's crust. 

1 Sir R. Murchison " On the Distribution of the Flint Drifts of the 
South-East of England." 



CHAPTER XII. 

(Subject Continued.) 

Antiquity of Man — The Chronology of Archceologists — Infer- 
ences connected with Geology and History — The Danish 
Shell -Mounds, Siviss Lake Dwellings, and Egyptian 
Monuments. • 

"The antiquities piece on in natural sequence to the geology ; and 
it seems but rational to indulge in the same sort of reasonings regarding 
them. They are the fossils of an extinct order of things newer than 
the tertiary, — of an extinct race, of an extinct religion, of a state of 
society and a class of enterprises which the world saw once, but which 
it will never see again ; and with but little assistance from the direct 
testimony of histoiy, one has to grope one's way along this comparatively 
modern formation, guided chiefly, as in the more ancient deposits, by 
the clue of circumstantial evidence." — Hugh Miller. 

THERE is another class of facts more closely related to 
Archaeology than to Geology, which are also claimed 
as evidence of man's antiquity. Although archaeology, as a 
science, has to do exclusively with man and his works, it is 
difficult to determine where it begins in geology and where 
it ends in history, as it interweaves with both and binds them 
together. While flint implements and human bones have 
been found in caves and moss-depths, or in other superficial 
formations, we have classed them under the section geology, 
because there has been nothing artificial in their resting- 
place to distinguish the remains of man from those of the 
lower animals ; but where the remains have been connected 
with artificial structures of any kind, such as the Danish 
shell-mounds, the lake dwellings, or the American mounds, 



224 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XII. 



or Egyptian and other monuments, we should class them 
under archceology. 

This distinction, which we venture to suggest, will free the 
discussion from some of the embarrassment and confusion 
which arise from commingling the same facts under both the 
geological and archaeological divisions. It is not absolutely 
accurate * because everything prehistoric which is related to 
man is archaeological, whatever be the position or circum- 
stances in which it is discovered ; but the distinction is 
convenient, and it is sufficiently logical to give consistency 
to the discussion of the question before us. 

III. For these reasons, we have separated the facts which 
we have now to consider from those already examined, as 
more properly geological. 

i. The first which we notice are the Danish Shell- 
Mounds, or Kjokkenmodding — " kitchen refuse heaps." 
What are the facts here, and what the inference ? " At 
certain points," says Sir Charles Lyell, " along the shores of 
nearly all the Danish islands, mounds may be seen, con- 
sisting chiefly of thousands of cast-away shells of the oyster, 
cockle, and other molluscs of the same species as those 
which are now eaten by man. These shells are plentifully 
mixed up with the bones of various quadrupeds, birds, and 
fish, which served as the food of the rude hunters and 
fishers by whom the mounds were accumulated." Similar 
mounds have been left near the shore by North- American 
Indians. " Scattered all through the Danish heaps are 
flint knives, hatchets, and other instruments of stone, horn, 
wood, and bone, with fragments of broken pottery, mixed 
with charcoal and cinders; but never any implements 
of bronze, still less of iron. . . . The mounds vary 
in height from three to ten feet, and, in area, are some 
of them iooo feet long, and from 150 to 200 wide. 



CHAP. XII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 22$ 

They are rarely placed more than ten feet above the level 
of the sea, and are confined to its immediate neighbour- 
hood." 1 Sir Charles briefly repeats his argument based on 
the growth of a succession of different kinds of trees, and on 
the slow growth of peat-moss ; but as his reasoning has 
already been fully considered, and its weakness exposed 
in the light of his own admissions, 2 it is unnecessary 
here to make further allusion to it. All that is re- 
quired is to notice such new reasoning as he has ad- 
duced, and for that purpose a few sentences will suffice. 
His arguments are (1), As there are parts of the coast where 
the western ocean is wearing down the cliff, it appears that, 
through a slow process, the land has been carried off on 
which shell-mounds were raised; and (2), As the cockle and 
mussel shells in the mounds are larger than those now 
existing in the neighbouring sea, a change in its littoral water 
has taken place. His other arguments regarding the smaller 
race of dogs then existing, and those birds, also, which are 
now all but extinct, carry little or no weight on his side of 
the question. That certain mounds are not found on the 
western shore, proves nothing as to their antiquity, nor does 
the fact of a moss intervening between the sea and any 
mound ; for there is no evidence that moss was formed sub- 
sequently to such mounds, and besides, the early inhabitants 
may have preferred to rest on their landward side. 

The mere deterioration of the eatable shells can 
scarcely be accepted as evidence ; for, as Professor 
C. H. Hitchcock has stated, while " similar heaps are 
scattered along the Atlantic coast, from Prince Edward's 
Island to Georgia," and while, in both Continents, " these 
heaps indicate that the oyster formerly flourished in abund- 

1 "Antiquity of Man," pp. II, 12. 2 Ante, Chapter xi., pp. 213, 218, 

Q 



BLENDING LIGHTS. 



[chap. XII, 



ance where it is now extremely scarce," this fact does 
not of itself necessitate an ancient date for the forming of 
the refuse heap ; " because in Maine, we can prove that the 
oyster became thus nearly extinct within the time of the 
white population." " At the present day," says Professor 
Duns, "there are tribes of Indians in British North America 
who form such refuse-heaps still ; while, contemporary with 
them, there are others who have no such customs. Would 
any one, then, be warranted to conclude that these refuse-heap 
makers are greatly more ancient than the others?" 1 A 
minute examination of proof, not only in the localities where 
recent discoveries have been made, but in those distant parts 
of the world in which similar facts or changes have been 
noticed, discredits the deductions which have been made re- 
garding man's antiquity. 

2. — Lake Dwellings. 

There is another series of facts which have of late awak- 
ened much interest, because they have been employed in some 
instances in evidence of a remote antiquity for man. Lake 
Dwellings, or houses built on wooden piles driven into the 
soil, or firmly propped at the bottom of lakes, and at some 
distance from the shore, have been found in Switzerland, 
in Italy, in France, in Ireland, and Scotland. This strange 
mode of dwelling seems to have been common in Southern 
and Western Europe, and to have been intended as security 
against the attacks of beasts of prey, as well as from the 
inroads of hostile tribes. Such dwellings were little known, 
and attracted little attention, until the lakes and rivers in 
Switzerland sank lower than usual in the winter of 1853-54; 
and the inhabitants bordering the lake of Zurich attempted 
to reclaim some of the shore by dredging the mud to form an 



Science and Christian Thought," p. 228. 



CHAP. XII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 227 



embankment, when they unexpectedly found not only 
wooden piles driven into the bed of the lake, but hammers, 
celts, and various implements. These hamlets built above 
the waters having at times taken fire, many of the 
implements and utensils sank into the lake; and these 
relics have become the fossils by which we interpret the 
history of the people and estimate its length, — they are the 
clue through the labyrinth of prehistoric times by which the 
archaeologist reaches a dim knowledge of the past. 

Finding stone implements in connection with lake dwell- 
ings, while in others those of bronze predominate, archaeolo- 
gists have given'them a historical significance, assigning, by 
a kind of random estimate, to the stone-period an age of 
from 5000 to 7000, and to the bronze age from 3000 to 4000 
years, — in all, from 8000 to 11,000 years, without including 
any portion of the iron age. Precisely the same kind of 
elasticity prevails in the calculations of the archaeologist, of 
which we complained in the reasoning of the geologist. M. 
Morlot reaches his conclusions by assuming that the Tiniere, 
a torrent which flows into the Lake of Geneva, had formed 
its delta of gravel and sand with uniform regularity, and 
that layers of vegetable soil had been spread by the slow 
hand of many centuries; so that when the cutting for a 
railway laid open a section, thirty-two feet in depth, he had 
only to assume for the Roman period an antiquity of sixteen 
or eighteen centuries, and the rest was easy; to add 
thousands was natural, and contradiction was difficult. M. 
Troyon makes similar calculations, but Sir Charles Lyell 
hesitates to accept any of them. 1 

Those lake dwellings which are nearer us — the crannoges 
of Ireland and Scotland — are acknowledged to be of recent 

1 " Antiquity of Man," p. 29. 



228 BLENDING LIGHTS. [chap. XII. 

date. Sir John Lubbock himself admits that they are " re- 
ferable to a much later period than those of Switzerland," 
and that " they are frequently mentioned in early history." 
The O'Neil, as late as 1567, is reported to have fortifications 
"An sartm ffreshwater loghes:' 1 Is it not all but incon- 
ceivable that rude lake dwellings should continue through a 
period of 5000 or 7000 years, and that through all that time 
agricultural and pastoral life should in any one territory be 
non-existent ? Lake dwellings would be inconsistent with 
the maintenance of flocks and herds ; and to suppose that 
hunters only lived through that long and dreary period, is 
utterly incompatible with the growth of population on the 
one hand, and with the supply of food by the chase on the 
other. Herodotus described lake dwellings, about 320 
years B.C., similar to those of the Swiss, as prevailing among 
the Pseonians in Thrace ; and although he has informed us 
that the Pseonians lived in them with their families and horses, 
the fact does not nullify the opinion that the extension of 
this system, or anything like it, for thousands of years, is 
utterly at variance with the laws of the Nomadic or pastoral 
life. Similar habitations are still to be found among the 
Papoos in New Guinea and in the straits of Malacca. 2 

Such dwellings prove the enduring character of certain 
habits of life in the midst of an advancing tide of improve- 
ment ; nothing more. They cannot be connected with the 
meagre skill of the stone age, as it has been usually repre- 
sented, because the very maintenance of such dwellings 
presupposes agricultural or pastoral supplies, and the facts 
which have been brought to light confirm this view. In 
short, when all the evidence which these lake dwellings 

x See an interesting chapter on Lake Dwellings in Sir John Lubbock's 
" Prehistoric Times," second edition, pp. 166-214. 

2 " Scripture and Science not at Variance," p. 184. 



CHAP. XII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 229 

furnish, embracing stone and bronze implements ; fragments 
of rude pottery ; remains of wheat, and barley, and flax, 
which must have been introduced from Asia ; the bones of 
animals whose representatives still live in Europe, with the 
exception of the Urus, which, however, had not become 
extinct until after Caesar's time ; the thickness of mud 
deposits in the delta of Tiniere ; the rate at which the land 
has encroached on the Lake of Brienne ; and the growth 
and movements of mosses or bogs within even historic 
times, — has been carefully sifted and weighed, the mere idea 
of 5000 or 7000 years of such supposed facts resulting at last 
in the evolution of a bronze age is absurd; it is without a 
vestige of that support which should entitle it to any 
acknowledgment in a strictly scientific inquiry. 

As the Danish mounds and lake dwellings have been 
introduced to give evidence in favour of man ; s antiquity, by 
some whose attainments command universal respect, it is 
necessary to make here one or two additional references to 
the subject. When considering the origin and progress of 
civilisation, we directed attention to the stone, bronze, and 
iron periods, in their relation to man's power of invention 
in the savage state, and his subsequent advancement: 1 but 
it may be of importance to notice, briefly, what did not then 
fall logically within the limits of our exposition, viz., — the 
relation of these distinct periods to the general question of 
Time. What evidence do the supposed periods give on 
behalf of a remote antiquity for man ? 

While the theory of distinct periods gives convenient 
forms of expression, and is useful in indicating, in a general 
way, progress in mechanical and industrial arts, it assumes 
what has been already proved to be untenable in either 



1 Chapters ix and x. 



230 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XII. 

fact or principle,— -first, that man's origin was lower than 
that of the lowest savage now on the face of the earth; 
second, that he has slowly crept upward through the stone 
and bronze periods to his present civilised state ; and third, 
that each successive period emerged from that which pre- 
ceded, only after it had run a course of some thousands of 
years. It is the last assumption which falls to be noticed ; 
the first and second have been already considered. 

On every student anxious to know the truth of history, 
irrespective of collateral interests, the question naturally 
presses itself, What of Asia and Africa? While it is 
instructive to examine facts in Europe, and to found on them 
sweeping generalisations, is it fair to extend them to 
countries whose facts, so far as they have been yet ascer- 
tained, suggest a different conclusion? It is well known 
that, during at least part of the stone age in Europe, the 
East was resplendent in its civilisation. How arrange the 
facts of African and Asiatic civilisation so as to make them 
fit into this theory ? In some parts of the world, the stone 
age still lingers. Suppose that three hundred, or only a 
hundred years ago, its tools had been buried, and explorers 
in the neighbourhood of Cape Horn brought up from 
diggings some stone implements, what value could be 
attached to the reasoning based upon them as to a distant 
age ? Not dissimilar is the weakness of much of the recent 
reasoning as to periods which we have been constrained to 
study. It does not make allowance for the co-existence in the 
world of tribes using stone implements, of communities 
using bronze, and of nations using iron. The advocates of 
the succession of such periods by a kind of lineal descent, 
fail in their proof ; nay, rather, are answered by their own 
admissions, that when bronze implements have appeared, they 
have been introduced by some foreign hand into a stone- 



CHAP. XII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 231 

using tribe. Sir John Lubbock has admitted, as already 
stated (p. 162), that bronze was introduced, not invented, in 
Europe ; and Worsaae is still more explicit on this subject 
when he states what really is an unanswerable refutation of 
the whole theory of period-descent, a refutation all the 
more decided because coming from one who is not only 
highly distinguished as an antiquarian, but known as an 
ardent supporter of the Period theory, — " We must not, 
however," he says, " by any means, believe that the bronze 
period developed itself among the aborigines gradually, or 
step by step, out of the stone period. On the contrary, 
instead of the simple and uniform implements and ornaments 
of stone, bone, and amber, we meet suddenly with a num- 
ber and variety of splendid weapons, implements, and 
jewels of bronze, and sometimes, indeed, with, jewels of gold. 
The transition is so abrupt, that from the antiquities we are 
enabled to conclude, what in the following pages will be 
further developed, that the bronze period must have com- 
menced with the irruption of a new race of people, possessing 
a higher degree of cultivation than the earlier inhabitants." 1 
Not only is this introduction or irruption acknowledged, 
but the contemporaneous use of stone and bronze imple- 
ments and utensils is distinctly specified. " The universal 
diffusion of metals could only take place by degrees. Since 
in Denmark itself neither copper nor tin occurs, — so that 
these metals, being introduced from other countries, were, of 
necessity, expensive, — the poorer classes continued for a long 
series of years to make use of stone as their material." 2 
That they " continued for a long period," is an admission 
which shows how uncertain must be all calculations as to 



1 "Primeval Antiquities of Denmark," by J. J. A. Worsaae, p. 24, 
3 Ibid. 



232 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XII. 

Time, for if, in any locality, stone implements left by the 
poor had been discovered long after bronze was used by the 
higher classes, a miscalculation of some thousand years 
might possibly be made. 

Engelhardt, referring to the same sudden change, as it is 
seen especially in burial customs, says that it cannot be 
accounted for by the peaceful intercourse of civilised nations, 
and that the time of the change cannot be determined by 
the antiquities themselves, because neither coins nor inscrip- 
tions have been discovered. 

And what is worthy of special notice. is, that Engelhardt 
acknowledges an equally complete and sudden change in the 
introduction of the iron age. There is no slow transition. 
" The differences/' he says, " are too striking. We look in 
vain for points of resemblance between the antiquities of the 
two periods with regard to shape and ornamentation." l 
Thus, according to these Danish archaeologists, there is no 
proof whatever of the same race passing upwards from the 
stone to the bronze, or from the bronze to the iron age, with- 
out some new impulse or adequate external force. Nor 
do the leading Danish antiquarians indulge in extravagant 
claims as to time. Worsaae attributes "to the stone 
age an antiquity of at least 3000 years ; " and he 
adds, that " there are geological reasons for believing that 
the bronze period must have prevailed in Denmark five 
or six hundred years' before the birth of Christ." 2 This 
estimate is easily reducible within the general limits of 
Bible chronology; and Engelhardt is equally cautious in 
making the first or oldest division of the iron age about 
250 B.C. The transition period he extends to the seventh 

1 " Denmark in the Early Iron- Age, illustrated by Recent Discoveries 
in the Peat-Mosses of Slesvig," by Conrad Engelhardt, p. 7* 1866. 
s " Primeval Antiquities of Denmark," p. 135. 



CHAP. XII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 233 

century of the Christian era, and the late iron age to the 
introduction of Christianity in Denmark, about the year 1000. 

But even this modified and comparatively unobjection- 
able view is not accepted by some of our more experienced 
archaeologists. While they admit that stone implements are 
found abundantly in all parts of the British Islands, and in 
all parts of the world, and that " nothing seems more natural, 
not only in a very rude state of society, but also in much 
more civilised times, when communication between different 
parts of the country was slow, and metal was not always to 
be had, than to form rough tools or weapons, especially for 
the chase, of hard stones," they are of opinion that " it has 
been assumed rather hastily that, where we find these imple- 
ments of stone, the people to whom they belonged were 
not acquainted with the art of working metals." l Mr. 
Wright, whose decision is of great weight, gives a series of 
examples to show that the stone implements have mingled 
with bronze and iron, and that they have been continued to 
a recent date, — to the battle of Hastings, for instance, in 
England, and to the wars of Wallace in Scotland. 2 And 
he gives it, also, as his opinion, that many of the flint 
implements could not have been prepared as they have been, 
without metal instruments, even where such have not been 
found associated with them. 

Obscure as many of the local facts are, and unconnected 
as are the records .of the different races, enough is becoming 
distinctly known not only to make us hesitate about 
admitting the sequence of these ages in the line which the 
theorists demand, but to confirm our belief in the general 

1 "The Celt, the Roman, and the Briton," by Thomas Wright, Esq., 
pp. 69, 72. 

2 "The Celt, the Roman, and the Briton," p. 72. 



234 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XII. 

chronological outline given in the Bible, to which we have 
already referred. " The utmost that -these remains enable 
us to do," says an able writer, " is to conclude something 
of certain races in a corner of the world, probably, at any- 
rate possibly, driven into it from earlier seats ; they contri- 
bute but little light to the larger and more interesting 
questions connected with the early condition and progress of 
mankind. And these remains themselves are, for the present, 
hopelessly isolated. All existing collections, numerous and 
abundant as they are, fail to supply a thread which connects 
one group with another, either in the line of descent or in 
collateral relationship. We cannot find the clue to pass 
from stone to bronze, or from bronze to iron. Further, it is 
very precarious to make rudeness in workmanship or differ- 
ence in material a test of relative antiquity. . . . Again, 
the relation, in point of time, of bronze to iron, is far too 
uncertain to warrant us in making an age of iron after an 
age of bronze. It may be probable that in certain races 
bronze was used before iron in preference to it, or, at any- 
rate, instead of it ; but as a general rule, we can but guess, 
and our grounds for guessing are not very good. We are 
in absolute ignorance of everything connected with the first 
use of the metals \ how and when they were applied to the 
purposes of daily life; under what circumstances of dis- 
covery, or foreign introduction and teaching, they came to 
be employed in Europe." 1 

There is a very general concurrence of opinion among 
ethnologists, that the successive advances of population over 
Europe have originated in Asia ; that the probable seats of 
early civilisation were the banks of the Nile, the Euphrates, 
the Tigris, the Indus, and the Ganges ; and that the rapid 

1 " Saturday Review," August 12, 1865, p. 208. 



CHAP. XII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 235 



changes in mechanical or industrial arts which unexpectedly 
meet the archaeologist in Western Europe, are traceable to 
Eastern impulse. Archaeological science is adjusting its 
inferences regarding periods to a wider induction of facts, 
and it is cheering to find that adjustment coming closer to 
the Scripture record. Students in different sections are so 
approaching each other, that the light of their more accurate 
conclusions is beginning to blend with the light which the 
Bible has been for ages shedding on the antiquity of man. 

Our attention has hitherto been exclusively directed to 
the evidence connected with the rude skill and practices of 
either apparently or really barbarous tribes ; but there re- 
mains for examination another important department, which 
is dependent for its facts on the existence of a high degree 
of civilisation. It is 

III. — The Evidence from Ancient Monuments and 
Inscriptions. 

As the monuments of Egypt alone have supplied the 
chief proof which has been adduced in support of man's 
antiquity, it will be unnecessary to examine in detail sub- 
ordinate or incidental evidences of the same kind obtained 
in other countries ; nor will it, indeed, be necessary to spend 
much time with the evidence which Egypt has supplied, 
because the reasoning which was for some years eagerly 
maintained has been almost altogether abandoned. We 
shall have occasion, however, to refer more particularly to 
the monuments and inscriptions, not only of Egypt, but of 
other countries, when inquiring to what extent, in the light 
of History, the minuter as well as the more general state- 
ments of the Bible are receiving merited recognition and 
acknowledgment. 

Nothing could be more natural, we admit, than the 
demand on the part of the rejecter of the Bible, that the 



236 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XII 

Christian should look at the Egyptian monuments and 
inscriptions, and acknowledge the likelihood that they told 
of an earlier history for man than the Bible gave. The 
pyramids of Egypt, with their overawing and sombre vast- 
ness ; her temples, with their sphinxes, colonnades, and 
painted chambers ; her palaces and obelisks, with their traces 
of exquisite culture, scattered with most amazing profusion ; 
her mysterious hieroglyphics and papyrus-rolls ; have made 
her truly "a land of wonders," and have most naturally 
suggested the inquiry, Since ruins so vast, representing, in 
varied forms, art so advanced, have existed for so many 
centuries, what may have been the range of history that 
created a civilisation which, after all, they only in part 
reveal ? It is indicated in the Bible that, even in Abraham's 
time, remarkable advances had been made; for when he 
went to Egypt there was a completely-organised nation, with 
its king and princes, its gold and silver, and its abundant 
agricultural produce. In all the aspects of ancient Egypt, 
there appeared so many tokens of a remotely early civilis- 
ation, that no surprise need be felt at the urgency with 
which infidel writers continued to ply Christians to yield 
the Bible as historically untrustworthy, nor at the emphasis 
with which they asserted that if these monuments could 
only find an interpreter, the writings of Moses would soon 
be thoroughly confuted. To the questions, How long since 
these pyramids were built? and, What mean these inscrip- 
tions ? the Christian apologist could give no answer ; and 
his silence was reckoned equivalent to bigotry or defeat. 
But the monuments have at last found interpreters, and the 
Christian has obtained his required answer. 

In considering the early civilisation of Egypt and other 
countries, it must be granted that there are no dates by 
which we can determine the length of time between the 



. 



CHAP. XII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 237 

Deluge or the Dispersion at the building of the Tower of 
Babel, and the visit of Abraham to Egypt. It has, there- 
fore, been variously estimated. The Vatican copy of the 
Septuagint gives 1172 years as the length between, the 
Deluge and the 70th year of Terah, Abraham's father ; 
Josephus, 1002; and the Hebrew, only about 427 years. 
The difference is very great between the first date and the 
last ; but we may fairly assume that a much longer period 
elapsed between the Deluge and the time at which Abraham 
visited Egypt. If we even restrict ourselves to the lowest 
Septuagint number, there is a period of about 1 200 years 
for the outcome of Egyptian civilisation, as it is represented 
in Abraham's time. We do not, however, impose any such 
restriction ; the period may have been greatly longer j the 
Bible does not settle those early dates, nor does it supply 
reliable historical data, until the time of Saul, and the 
building of the temple by Solomon. . We do not hesitate, 
therefore, to give such scope to the Bible chronology 
between the Deluge and the time of Abraham's visit to 
Egypt, as shall be sufficient to provide for all the facts of its 
early civilisation. As the numbers given in the Bible have 
been expressed by alphabetic letters, which are, in several 
instances, like each other, they may have been interchanged; 
and not only may differences have thus arisen, but the time 
also may have been unduly shortened. As the Bible is not 
specific in its early dates, none of the chronological systems 
which have been published have divine authority ; and we 
violate no principle in preferring whatever period gives the 
fullest and most natural range for the development of 
Egyptian civilisation prior to the times of Abraham and 
Joseph. 

It is, at the same time, to be kept in view, that all the 
skill which those had reached who lived before the Deluge, 



238 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XII. 

their knowledge of writing (probably in different forms), 
their power in representing ideas and objects pictorially, and 
their notions of domestic and social organisation, would, in 
all likelihood, be transferred to the New World by Noah 
and his family. The human race would thus enter on a 
fresh course after the Flood, not with everything to learn, 
but with the ideas, the habits, and the mechanical skill of that 
ancient civilisation of which striking glimpses are obtained 
in the first chapters of Genesis. 

While holding this view, and admitting the necessity of an 
elongated early chronology, we refuse to rush to the opposite 
extreme, and to accept or advocate a period of six or 
seven thousand years between the Deluge and the time of 
Abraham, not only because it is unnecessary for such facts 
as are known, but because, in that time, according to the 
ordinary laws regulating the growth of nations, there would 
have been other revolutions than those which have been 
recorded both in the Bible and in profane histories. 

Without further prefatory remarks, let us inquire whether 
the monuments themselves unfold anything like the history 
which opponents of the Bible have claimed. While it 
was supposed that the pyramids were built in ages so 
remote as to baffle research, and that the mysterious 
inscriptions on monuments and on the papyrus-rolls, if only 
once interpreted, would unfold a history which should con- 
found the defenders of the Bible, strangely enough, in the 
providence of God, the age of the pyramids has been deter- 
mined, and the inscriptions have been largely deciphered, 
in such a way as to vindicate the Bible and place legitimate 
inferences beyond cavil or objection. 

That which is held to be the oldest pyramid, has been 
proved by Sir John Herschel to have been built as late as 
between 21 71 or 2123 b.c Professor Piazzi Smyth has con- 



CHAP. XII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 239 

firmed the conclusion. By astronomical science the date 
has been established, and the idle speculations about remote 
ages have been swept aside. There are, it is true, some 
monuments which are supposed to be older than this great 
pyramid ; as, for instance, the pyramid of Saqqarah, the 
tomb of King Scnta, and the statues of the family of Sefra, 
belonging respectively to the first, second, and third dynas- 
ties ; — but two centuries, at most, are held sufficient to 
represent the whole difference. Champollion has given it 
as his opinion that " no Egyptian monument is really older 
than the year 2200 B.C." Mariette Bey has adduced evidence 
in favour of a like general conclusion ; and Sir J. G. Wilkin- 
son has decided that few paintings or sculptures remain of 
an age prior to the accession of Osirtesen I., whom he sup- 
poses to have been contemporary with Joseph, and to have 
ascended the throne about the year b.c. 1740. The tombs 
in the vicinity of the pyramids, and those hewn in the rock 
near Qasr e'S/ad, the ancient Chenoboscion, he regards as 
places of sepulture of individuals who lived in the time of 
Suphis and his immediate successors, and as having, there- 
fore, a date about the year 2090 or 2050 B.C., 1 — that is, before 
the time of Abraham. The claims of a greatly older date, 
because of stones in the area of the pyramid, he sets aside 
as without support. " It is evident," he says, " that the 
tombs built of stone, which stand in the area before and be- 
hind the great pyramid, were erected after it had been com- 
menced, if not completed, as their position is made to con- 
form to that monument j and that those hewn in the rock 
at the same place were not of an older period, is shown by the 
style of the sculptures and the names of the kings." 2 



1 "Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians," by Sir J. G. 
Wilkinson, vol. III., pp. 277,278. * Ibid, p. 278. 



240 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XII. 

That date must be the starting-place of the Bible student, — 
if he go backward, there is hopeless confusion ; if he go 
forward, there is increasing light. 

This important decision as to the date of the oldest pyramid, 
has been amply vindicated by the inscriptions that have been 
recently deciphered. These inscriptions, with their mysteri- 
ous hieroglyphics or sacred sculpture, and their hieratic 
characters, which no scholar could interpret or explain, were 
for many centuries wistfully examined, but in vain. Those 
whose attainments and skill were the most likely to command 
a solution of these historical enigmas, were completely baffled; 
and the rejecters of the Bible, as unworthy of belief in even 
its historical statements, were all pointing in triumph to 
the mysterious monuments of Egypt as probable witnesses of 
remotest ages, when, apparently by accident, the means of 
interpreting them were obtained. The circumstances were 
no less remarkable than the time in the controversy was 
opportune. The French Government had sent along with the 
army, in its expedition to Egypt in 1798, a number of men 
distinguished in the various branches of science and literature, 
to inquire into the antiquities of the country. Engineers 
and draftsmen were sent to help them, — every facility was 
granted to secure success, — and the reports, with the monu- 
ments sent home, aroused public attention not in France 
only, but over all Europe. 

In digging the foundation of Fort St. Julian, near Rosetta, 
the French engineers came on a huge block of black basalt, 
having inscriptions which at once awakened the greatest 
interest and the liveliest hopes. This precious monument 
was afterwards taken from the French by the English fleet, 
and in 1799 deposited in the British Museum as the 
" Rosetta Stone." Its importance it would be difficult to 
over-estimate. As its history is well known, no fuller refer- 



CHAP. XII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 241 

ences need be made to it than are barely necessary for our 
argument. It has three distinct inscriptions. The uppermost 
one is in hieroglyphics much mutilated ; the second is in the 
enchorial or demotic character, — that is, in the language 
early spoken by the people, but afterwards lost; and the 
third is in Greek, and it was understood to be a translation 
of the hieroglyphics. For about twenty years the problem 
remained unsolved ; the Rosetta stone continued a mystery, 
notwithstanding the earnest study of the most accomplished 
scholars in Europe, who had obtained copies of it. While 
many a burning brow had ached in the attempt to solve the 
problem, — while Champollion, a young Frenchman, having 
with wonderful enthusiasm studied Egyptian antiquities, had 
published, in 1814, his learned work, "L'Egypte sous les 
Pharaons," containing a collection of the geographical notices 
occurring in Coptic MSS. collated with those of ancient and 
modern authors, and while, by the research and ingenuity 
which his work evinced, he had given fresh impulse to many 
an ardent student, — infidel archaeologists, and mere littera- 
teurs, whose attainments in any science were slight, were 
alike eager in making the most of their opportunity, by 
turning every new discovery to account against the Bible, 
by challenging Christian apologists to speak out in defence 
of its historical statements, and by meeting their silence 
with ridicule, sarcasm, and merciless invective. 

The claims of an immense antiquity were urged with as 
much tenacity of purpose as have been the demands of the 
geologist for millions on millions of years, and two of the 
strongest proofs then adduced were the once famous Zodiacs 
of Denderah and Esneh. The facts may be briefly recalled, 
as showing us the necessity there is for caution, and the en- 
couragement there is for confidence in the Bible. 

When, in 1798, General Buonaparte, with his French 

R 



242 BLENDING LIGHTS. [cHAP.XII. 



soldiery and his literary men, entered the small town of 
Denderah, in Central Egypt, he found two temples, one 
large and one small, covered with hieroglyphics and images 
of deities. The literary men not only copied the drawings, 
but carried away the whole ceiling of the small temple, and 
when it reached Paris, ardent archaeologists hastily scanned 
it; they applied to certain marks in the inscription some 
principles of astronomical calculation, and inferred that the 
time at which the temple was erected was 1 7,000 years before 
the Christian era ! There was great excitement ; volume 
followed volume on the subject ; pamphlets and newspapers 
discussed the theme as the great discovery of the eighteenth 
century. Hundreds of thousands flocked to the National 
Library in Paris to see the antediluvian monument; and 
when Charles X., in order to save it from destruction, 
placed it in a dark chamber, sceptics declaimed fiercely 
against keeping the people from becoming enlightened, and 
railed against belief in a Deluge or in Creation as stated in 
the Bible, and especially against the impositions of a " wily 
priesthood." " Now you can see," they said, " that the Old 
and New Testaments contain, from beginning to end, a 
series of lies." 

In the temple of Esneh, another of "the Zodiacs" was dis- 
covered, and on being brought to France and examined, it 
also had an antiquity of 17,000 years assigned to it. The 
dates, however, were not indisputable, for M. Jomard made 
one of them 1923 years B.C., M. Dupuis made it 4000 years 
old, while the popular inference was that of M. Gori, who as- 
signed 1 7,000 years as assuredly the right age. When scholars 
who had precisely the same data came to conclusions so 
widely different, we should have supposed that comparatively 
little importance would have been attached to the proof in 
favour of great antiquity; but it was otherwise. Their reason- 



CHAP. XII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 243 

ing made a deep impression, not only in France, but in 
Britain, and in the whole of Europe, and the oldest date 
found the fullest acceptance. 

For a time there was no answer; but it came. Dr. Young, 
in 18 1 9, published the results of his patient and laborious 
investigations, in the " Supplement to the Encyclopaedia 
Britannica," under the Article Egypt. A beginning in the 
right direction 'was made, and r in a short time, through the 
labours of Dr. Young and Champollion, the Rosetta Stone's 
threefold inscription became the key to open up many of the 
Egyptian secrets. 

Afteralmost incredible toil, Champollion, having deciphered 
the hieroglyphics, read in the famous inscription on the 
temple of Denderah, the name and titles of Augustus Ccesar! 
showing that it could be no older than the time when 
Christianity was introduced ; and in that of the temple at 
Esneh, the name of Antoninus ! proving that, instead of be- 
ing built 17,000 years before the Christian era, it was about 
140 years after it ! There was a sudden and strange collapse 
over all Europe of the inflated opposition to the Bible, 
which this, and similar discoveries, had temporarily sus- 
tained ; and it is now indisputable that all the six Zodiacal 
representatives which have been discovered in Egypt, are 
traceable to the time when the country passed through the 
hands of the Greeks, and that their origin is within two 
hundred years of the Christian era. 

As we thus closely follow archaeological guidance to the 
clearer or historic side, is it not instructive to observe how, 
at the outset, mistakes have been committed similar to those 
which we noticed on the geologic side ? and how correction 
has proceeded from the very science whose principles have 
been misapplied in promoting error ? 

The exposing of erroneous conclusions was only part of 



244 BLENDING LIGHTS, - [CHAP. XII. 

the important work that followed the acceptance of the 
methods of interpretation which Young and Champollion 
had introduced. Rosellini, Lepsius, Sir G. Wilkinson, Birch, 
and others, have also rendered invaluable service in decipher- 
ing inscriptions, and the result has been the total displace- 
ment of the old notion regarding the remote antiquity of the 
monuments themselves. 

It has been indisputably ascertained that they are all of 
comparatively recent date. The Rosetta Stone itself is no 
older than 190 years B.C., and bears on it the well-known 
names of "Ptolemy and Berenice, the Saviour gods." It 
ascribes divine honours to Ptolemy, and praises him* for 
various acts of liberality and wisdom in the earlier years of 
his reign. 

An obelisk which has been brought from Philae to Eng- 
land, contained, like the Rosetta Stone, an inscription in 
hieroglyphics and in Greek ; about the latter there was no 
difficulty, and the hieroglyphic section has been found to be 
its counterpart, — "a supplication of the priests of Isis, residing 
at Philae, to King Ptolemy, to Cleopatra his sister, and 
Cleopatra his wife." The inscription brings the date of the 
obelisk near to the time of Christ, and the oldest remains in 
Philae are supposed to be only about 390 B.C. 

The large hieroglyphic tablet of Abydos, — "the Doomsday 
Book of Egyptian chronology," — gives a genealogical list 
of the immediate predecessors of Rameses the Great, the 
Sesostris of Herodotus, who ascended the throne as late as 
1473 b.c. 

Much has been written regarding the temples of Karnac 
and their inscriptions ; but we have at present to do merely 
with the dates of their erection, — we have to question them 
only as to the past. The oldest remains discovered have 
been connected with the period of Osirtesen I., about 1750 



CHAP. XII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 245 

B.C., near the time of Joseph ; while the principal obelisks 
and the avenue of the sphinxes are attributed to the kings 
who reigned about 1380 B.C. 

Luxor — rendered in the hieroglyphic language, the palaces 
— represents in its ruins, buildings originally of surpassing 
grandeur. It was connected by avenues with Karnac, and 
the date of its palaces has been proved by inscriptions to be 
that of Pharaoh Amenophis III., who reigned about 1430 B.C. 

These brief notices afford no more than a glimpse of in- 
scriptions appearing everywhere amid ruins, which, in their 
extent and magnificence, are the wonder of the world. We 
must refer to works on the subject for details as to "the 
services of Aahmes-Penneben at the beginning of the 
eighteenth dynasty ; the Eilethyian inscription recording the 
wars against the Hykshos ; the tablet of Karnac containing 
the annals of Thothmes III.; the treaty between Rameses II. 
and the Khita ; the records of making tanks or wells for 
miners at the gold washings j the records of the star risings in 
the tomb of Rameses V.;" 1 and others of various dates, till 
the time of Cambyses and Darius Hystapes. Enough has 
been stated for our argument, that the monuments were raised 
within the period detennined for the oldest pyramid. As 
the origin of these ancient ruins seemed to be lost in a 
mysterious and dateless past, the urgency with which infidel 
archaeologists and historians demanded that the Christian 
student should yield the books of Moses as a worthless 
fable, was not unnatural ; but faith and patience have been 
rewarded by a triumphant settlement of the question as to 
all the old monuments coming easily within the Bible record. 

A careful examination of many papyrus-rolls has educed 
similar results. When they refer to historical events, it is to 

1 "Egyptian Hieroglyphs," by S. Birch, p. 270. 



246 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XII. 

such as are noticed on the monuments; and while some 
contain genealogies of kings or revenues of temples, and 
some give details of the foreign conquests of the ancient 
Kings of Egypt, others are filled with repetitions of the 
funeral ritual or prayer for the dead. One or two illustrations 
or specimens must suffice. In the Papyrus No. 36, of the 
Royal Museum at Turin, it is written, — " In the 36th year, 
on the 1 8th of the month Athyr, of the reign of the sovereigns 
Ptolemy and Cleopatra his sister, the children of Ptolemy 
and Cleopatra, gods Epiphanes;" and this is followed by a 
contract for the sale of the profits of certain religious offer- 
ings. In another papyrus fragment in the same Museum, 
there is a list of fifty-four kings in the order of their succes- 
sion till the twelfth dynasty. In one of the papyri, there is 
a metrical account of the campaign of Rameses II. against 
the Khita, written in the tenth year of his reign ; and in 
another, "a series of communications relating to certain 
transactions in Egypt in the reign of Apepi, as a shepherd 
king; and Tanaaken, a king of the seventeenth dynasty, 
relative to a political and religious controversy." 1 

Some papyrus-rolls, which were originally supposed to be 
written at a very early period in Egyptian history, have been 
assigned by modem critics a very recent age. We may 
mention, for instance, the Ritual for the Dead, which was 
at one time regarded as extremely old, but is now considered 
to be only of the age of the Ptolemies, or even later. A transla- 
tion of this long funereal papyrus is given by Bunsen, in 146 
chapters, to which those may turn who desire to study one 
of those strange documents which shed light on olden 
religious experiences and aspirations. 2 

1 For a list of papyrus records, see "Egyptian Hieroglyphs," by S. 
Birch, pp. 276, 279. 

2 "Egypt's Place in Universal History," vol. V., pp. 161, 333. 



CHAP. XII. J BLENDING LIGHTS. 247 

Of the Demotic writing, or that once common dialect 
which, in Egypt, superseded the sacred language, it is 
almost unnecessary to give any account. Although not 
introduced until the time of the Psammetici, about 664 
before the Christian era, it passed away about the middle of 
the third century after Christ, having had a course of rather 
more than 900 years, and, strangely enough, it is now less 
known than that by which it was immediately preceded, and 
its comparative recency renders its testimonies regarding the 
earliest ages of Egyptian history of little value. 

Out of those materials to which reference has been made, 
— the lists of kings on the monuments and in the papyrus- 
rolls,, with the historical arrangements and comments of the 
historians, Manetho and Eratosthenes, — systems of chronolo- 
gy have been constructed by such distinguished scholars as 
Bunsen, Boeckh, and Rodier; but the evidence is inadequate, 
and the conclusions have therefore been unsatisfactory. As 
it is impossible to say, in many instances, what kings were 
contemporary, and when they represent successive dynasties, 
no dependence can be placed even in such systems as have 
been most carefully elaborated. 

Bunsen, in his great work, " Egypt's Place in Universal 
History," in giving a " Synopsis of the Four Ages of the 
World," claims for the First Age from 20,000 to 10,000 
before Christ; and for the Second, from 10,000 to 2878 B.C.: 
and he enters into details regarding the Republican Period, 
the succession of sacerdotal and hereditary kings, and the 
formation of Language. Boeckh is singularly exact with his 
chronological system; its first period, beginning July 20, 
30,522 b.c, reaches down to July 20, 5703 B.C.; and there- 
after, we have historic times. Rodier makes definite history 
begin 24,000 b.c. ; but he assumes a previous long indefinite 
history, in which the dates cannot be determined. After the 



248 BLENDING LIGHTS. [chap. XII. 

year 24,000 b.c, the dates of great events, as he supposes, 
can be" rigorously verified." 

Let any one take the pains to master in detail these 
systems of chronology, and he will find he has engaged in a 
most profitless task. The chronologists do not agree among 
themselves. Who is to be preferred? Whom are we to 
follow ? Bunsen has said of Boeckh, " We believe that no 
Egyptologer has ever ventured upon so many and such bold 
alterations in the dates of Manetho as Boeckh was obliged 
to propose, in order to make good his assumption that 
Manetho's chronology was an artificial system of applying 
cyclical numbers to Egyptian history." 1 

Bunsen's own method has been severely, yet justly, handled 
by no less an authority than Sir G. C. Lewis. After referring 
to Sesostris as the great name of Egyptian antiquity, and as 
dwarfing into insignificance the builders of the Pyramids, he 
adds, — "Nevertheless, his historical identity is not proof 
against the dissolving and recompounding processes of the 
Egyptological method. Bunsen distributes him into por- 
tions, and identifies each portion with a different king. 
Sesostris, as we have stated, stands in Manetho's list as third 
king of the twelfth dynasty, at 3320 b.c; and a notice~is 
appended to his name, clearly identifying him with the 
Sesostris of Herodotus. Bunsen first takes a portion of him, 
and identifies it with Tosorthrus (written Sesorthrus by 
Eusebius), the second king of the third dynasty, whose date 
is 5 1 19 b.c, — being a difference, in the dates, of seventeen 
hundred and ninety-nine years, — about the same interval as 
between Augustus Ceesar and Napoleon. He then takes 
another portion, and identifies it with Sesonchosis, a king of 
the twelfth dynasty ; a third portion of Sesostris is finally 

1 "Egypt's Place in Universal History," vol. V., p. 119. 



CHAP. XII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 249 

assigned to himself. It seems that these three fragments 
make up the entire Sesostris." l 

In making this quotation as applicable to Bunsen's system 
of Egyptian chronology, we are not to be held as under- 
valuing his wonderful scholarship, nor the noble service 
which he has rendered to Philosophy and Christianity ; but 
when we have wandered with Egyptologists through cen- 
turies and millenniums, and have in vain sought for some 
solid resting-place in historical evidence, — when we have 
struggled to obtain some gleams of light in the midst of an 
obscurity which is never broken by the best efforts of our 
guides, we heartily say " Amen " to Sir G. C. Lewis's con- 
clusion : — " Egyptology has a historical method of its own. 
It recognises none of the ordinary rules of evidence ; the 
extent of its demands upon our credulity is almost unbounded. 
Even the writers on ancient Italian ethnology are modest 
and tame in their hypotheses, compared with the Egyptolo- 
gists. Under their potent logic all identity disappears ; 
everything is subject to become anything but itself. Suc- 
cessive dynasties become contemporary dynasties ; one king 
becomes another king, or several other kings, or a fraction 
of another king ; one name becomes another name ; one 
number becomes another number; one place becomes another 
place." 2 

The only subject remaining to be noticed as having 
given rise to much discussion, are the sculptured figures which 
represent the negro head and features. As they appear 
on some of the earliest monuments, it has been assumed 
either that there were originally distinct races of men, or 
that there was a greatly longer period than had hitherto 

1 " Survey of the Astronomy of the Ancients," by Sir G. C. Lewis, 
p. 369- 

2 " Historical Survey of the Astronomy of the Ancients," p. 368. 



250 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XII. 

been supposed between the Flood and the first evidences of 
Egyptian civilisation. We have already considered the 
alleged diversity of origin for the human race, x and have 
shown the doctrine to be not only theoretically unnecessary, 
but unsupported by facts, and we have advocated the 
opinion that a much longer period did elapse between the 
Flood and the visit of Abraham to Egypt than the ordinary 
systems of chronology have allowed. But accepting even 
the period given in the Septuagint, and taking into account 
the rapid changes which are produced in the human colour 
and countenance in such a climate as that prevailing in 
parts of Africa, no special difficulties exist about the facts 
represented on the olden monuments. Whatever reluctance 
may be felt in accepting the changes within that briefer 
period, may be removed by the probability of a longer time 
having run its course than the common chronology has 
allowed. 

It is obviously a flagrant violation of those principles 
which regulate the advance of nations, to suppose that six 
or seven thousand years were necessary to give the degree 
of civilisation which is assumed for the start of the first 
dynasty under the first King Menes. We do not require 
precision or definiteness regarding the exact number of 
centuries which passed between the Flood and the entrance 
of Abraham into Egypt ; but it is of importance to ascertain 
definitely the harmony of the facts which are recorded in 
Scripture, and referred to in other histories. In this harmony 
alone consists the strength of the historical argument. 

We have long held the opinion that Christian apologists 
have shown unnecessary anxiety as to exactness in dates. 
The admitted elasticity or differences in Bible chronology, 

1 Chapter viii. 



CHAP. XII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 251 



should make us willing to grant a liberal margin. What 
specially concerns us is the harmony of histories. While exact 
dates are in their own place most valuable, they are not to 
supersede the cumulative evidence which the recognised 
harmony of profane with sacred history is bringing to the 
side of the Christian apologist. No one can recall the per- 
petually recurring depreciation of the Bible through the 
greater part of the last half century, on the plea that its 
historical statements were either mythical, or, when valid, 
had been written out after other histories had been published, 
without deep thankfulness for the striking vindication of all 
its statements which contemporary histories have of late 
been giving. 

To the positive evidence for the truth of Scripture, which 
has been in many instances unexpectedly adduced through 
historical and philological investigations, we shall next direct 
attention as fully as is consistent with our present aim. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The Bible a Light among Ancient Records — Egyptian, Chal- 
dczan, and Assyrian Testimonies to the Truth of the 
Scriptures. 

* ' The oldest and most authentic record of the primeval state of the 
world is unquestionably the Scripture history ; and though the origin of 
its early inhabitants is only traced in a general and comprehensive man- 
ner, we have sufficient data for conjecture on some interesting points." 
— Sir y. G. Wilkinson. 

THE Bible unfolds the oldest history in the world. No 
other comes within sight of its earliest records. The 
Pentateuch was written by Moses a thousand years before 
Herodotus recited his history at the public games of Greece 
and the boy Thucydides wept lest he might fail in future 
rivalry, and more than twelve hundred years before the two 
Egyptian writers, Manetho and Eratosthenes, endeavoured 
to explain the revolutions of their country. Ctesias and 
Berosus, the one thirty and the other a hundred and fifty 
years later than Herodotus, followed him with their some- 
what conflicting^accounts of Chaldaean and Assyrian struggles 
and triumphs. The earliest Greek historian was thus the 
contemporary jof Ezra and Nehemiah; and, long before 
Manetho had arranged the details of Egyptian dynasties, the 
prophet Malachi had closed the Old Testament record. 
The historical distance between Moses and the earliest pro- 
fane writers is so great as to be distinctly visible, and therefore 
indisputable. 

\_ The references in the Bible to Egypt and other ancient 
monarchies, although often merely incidental, are yet so 



CHAP. XIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 253 

minute, and at times so comprehensive, that, if erroneous, 
nothing should be easier than to expose their inaccuracy ; 
and there can be, perhaps, on the other hand, no more con- 
vincing argument for the historical reliableness of the Bible 
than that which is dependent on the ascertained correctness 
of its allusions to those other nations with which the Israelites 
were, in the earliest ages, more or less closely associated. 

The ancient testimonies which monuments and written 
documents have most opportunely supplied within the pre- 
sent century, indeed, in a large measure, within the present 
generation, have not only demolished all the old reasoning 
against the Bible, but have so vindicated its historical trust- 
worthiness, that " Moses and the Prophets " are now left in 
undisturbed possession of the watchtowers from which, many 
centuries ago, they spoke to the Israelites, and through them 
to the whole world. The very first historical sections of the 
Bible, so long held in contempt, have of late not only at- 
tracted the attention of the greatest scholars, but have won 
their homage. No unbiassed student will now dare to scoff 
at the tenth chapter of Genesis, and pronounce it meaningless. 

Although Max Miiller has claimed for the Vedas of India 
a like antiquity with the writings of Moses, he admits that 
they are not history ;i and neither he, with all his en- 
thusiasm on their behalf, nor any one else, will now assign 
to them an ethnological value at all comparable with that 
of the Pentateuch. In the oldest histories there is nothing 
that approaches in universality and explicitness the tenth 
and eleventh chapters of Genesis. To the tenth chapter, as 
an ethnological table, scholars of opposite religious tendencies 
have united in paying homage. "It is as essential to an 
understanding of the Bible," says Professor T. Lewis, " and 

1 " Chips from a German Workshop," vol. L, p. 5. 



254 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIII. 

of history in general, as is Homer's Catalogue in the Second 
Book of the ' Iliad ' to a true knowledge of the Homeric 
poems and the Homeric times." » The light which it sheds 
on the origin and subsequent relations of tribes and nations, 
has not only continued undimmed by distance, but is be- 
coming brighter as accurate investigation is gradually re- 
moving the haze of prejudice or apathy by which it has been 
long encircled. 

In the genealogy which it outlines there is nothing mythical, 
nor is there anything which is specially flattering to the 
Israelites. There is no national vanity displayed, nor is 
there the least indication of what might have been in part 
expected, a decided preference for the Shemitic race. No 
special pre-eminence is assigned them in a history which is 
remarkable for its mingling of minute references with com- 
prehensive outlines. In closely examining the tenth chapter, 
we find such diversity of history as precludes exact classifica- 
tion, but its general statements are beginning to admit of 
comparatively easy historical exposition. While, for ex- 
ample, in some of the lists of the descendants of Noah, the 
record ends with the second generation, in others it extends 
to the third or fourth generation; and while in some instances 
the founder only without the tribe is named, in others the 
tribe without the founder is given, and in others it is difficult 
to say whether the founder or the tribe is meant; but through 
all that is yet inexplicable, there are minute historical refer- 
ences of so much importance as to command the attention 
of ethnologists. In the study of the earliest monarchies, — 
the Egyptian, the Chaldsean, and the Assyrian, — historians 
thankfully turn to the Book which was long scoffed at by 
those who plumed themselves on their varied scholarship. It 

1 " Lange's Commentary on Genesis," p. 352. 



CHAP. XIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 255 

sheds so much light on the first movements of different 
peoples, and on the foundation of empires, that it cannot be 
repudiated without injury to historical science. 

In immediate connection with the origin of nations, the 
sacred historian has placed the confusion of tongues at the 
building of the Tower of Babel ; and in thus accounting for 
the diversity of Languages, the Bible deals at the very outset 
with a remarkable subject which does not seem, for many 
ages, to have awakened, in Greece or elsewhere, the least 
interest or attention. In the simplicity of the Bible narrative 
is its strength. There is no date for the building of the 
Tower. Generally viewed, it stands as the boundary between 
the unity of the primitive world and the conflicting move- 
ments of diverse tribes in subsequent ages. It explains what 
otherwise would have remained inexplicable, — a manifold 
diversity of language, with a singular unity of apparently 
original structure. The moral cause of the dispersion has 
been thus stated, — " the unity which had hitherto bound 
together the human family was the community of one God, 
and of one divine worship. This unity did not satisfy them ; 
inwardly they had already lost it ; and therefore it was that 
they strove for another. There is therefore an ungodly 
unity which they sought to reach through such self-invented, 
sensual, outward means ; whilst the very thing they feared, 
they predicted as their punishment." x Their purpose was 
defeated by the confusion of their tongues, or rather by the 
sudden use of three languages instead of one. The intro- 
duction of three tongues or languages, would cause such con- 
fusion as would put an end to the undertaking. It would 
have been inconsistent with the method of the Divine govern- 
ment, so far as we can judge, to introduce a multitude of 

1 " Delitzsch," p. 310. " Lange's Commentary," p. 353. 



256 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIII. 

dialects, and make each man unintelligible to his com- 
panion; and it appears from the record itself that the confusion 
was orderly or regulated, for we are told anticipatively in the 
tenth chapter, that the descendants of Japheth, of Ham, and 
of Shem, were divided "after their families, after their 
tongues, in their lands, after their nations." Of each of the 
three, successively, is the same account given. 1 Is it not 
very significant to find the descendants of Japheth, Ham, 
and Shem separately described as peopling the earth " after 
their families and after their tongues" ? From these families, 
it would seem, have all the languages in the world been 
gradually evolved ; and is it not perfectly consistent with 
this Bible statement to find eminent philologists of all ranks 
concurring in the conclusion, that the languages and dialects 
of the world are reducible to three distinct families or 
groups, — the Aryan, the Semitic, and Turanian? "Com- 
parative Philology," says Bunsen, " would have been com- 
pelled to set forth as a postulate the supposition of some 
such division of languages in Asia, especially on the ground 
of the relation of the Egyptian language to the Shemitic, 
even if the Bible had not assured us of the truth of this great 
historical event. It is truly wonderful — it is matter of 
astonishment : it is more than a mere astounding fact, that 
something so purely historical, and yet divinely fixed, — 
something so conformable to reason, and yet not to be con- 
ceived of as a mere natural development, — is here related 
to us out of the oldest primeval period ; and which now, for 
the first time, through the new science of philology, has 
become capable of being historically and philosophically 
explained." 

The tenth and eleventh chapters cannot be separated 

1 Genesis x. 5, 20, 31, 32. 



CHAP. XIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 257 



without lessening their light. They are both singular in 
their delineation of secrets, which would otherwise have been 
for ever hidden, — their historical statements, though at first 
flowing separately, afterwards so far merge into each other as 
to become mutually illustrative. 

In their combination they shed light, for example, on those 
statements which long perplexed Bible students regarding 
the origin of the Chaldaean Empire, and they have dispelled a 
delusion which scholars persisted in maintaining against the 
direct teaching of the Bible. In this tenth chapter, — " the 
most authentic record that we possess for the affiliation of 
nations," 1 " the Book of the generations of the sons of Noah," 
— it is said, " The sons of Ham were Cush, and Mizraim, and 
Phut and Canaan . . . And Cush begat Nimrod . . . And the 
beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, 
and Calneh, in the land of Shinar." What is here note- 
worthy is, that while Mizraim, one of the sons of Ham, went 
to Egypt, and gave to the country its name, and Phut 
inhabited Central Africa, and Canaan peopled Palestine, the 
Babylonian line is directly connected with them. They are 
all Cushite by blood. " It is," says Professor Rawlinson, 
" the simplest and the best interpretation of this passage, to 
understand it as asserting that the four races — the Egyptians, 
Ethiopians, Libyans, and Canaanites — were ethnically con- 
nected, being all descended from Ham; and further, that the 
primitive people of Babylon were a sub-division of one of these 
races, — namely, of the Cushite or Ethiopians, connected in 
some degree with the Canaanites, Egyptians, and Libyans, 
but still more closely with the people which dwelt upon the 
Upper Nile." 2 

1 "Journal of Asiatic Society," vol. XV., p. 230. 
8 "The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World," by 
George Rawlinson, M.A. Vol. I., p. 64. 

S 



258 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIII. 

This idea of an Asiatic Cush or Ethiopia, was scouted by 
scholars of the greatest name, as created by the imagination 
of interpreters, and as " the child of their despair." 1 They 
limited the Biblical Cush to Egypt alone ; but this was done 
at the expense of Bible history ; for nothing can be more 
direct than the descent from Noah of Ham, Cush, and Nim- 
rod j and nothing can be clearer than the declaration that 
Nimrod " began to be a mighty one in the earth . . . and the 
beginning of his kingdom was Babel." This is the begin- 
ning of the Chaldaean monarchy; but is not its origin 
Hamitic, and also Egyptian, — for Ham begat Mizraim, and 
Mizraim in Egypt begat Cush, and Cush this Nimrod, who 
must have moved eastward to found an Ethiopian empire in 
Asia? There can be no escape from these plain historical 
issues represented in the Scriptures, and the question is, 
What support have they, if any, from other sources ? Until 
very recently, the evidence was not forthcoming, and Christian 
interpreters were satisfied by giving Egypt to the descendants 
of Ham, and assigning them a subordinate national place as 
the " servant of servants." By an easy or superficial reading 
of Scripture, the general inference was accepted that no great 
Asiatic empire could possibly be connected with the de- 
scendants of Ham, because of the supposed extent of their 
prophetic doom ; but the fact that such an empire did exist, 
has been established in harmony both with Bible statements 
and the principles of prophetic interpretation, by a series of 
very strong, if not, indeed, indisputable proofs. As a very 
general outline of the evidence is all that can be given here, 
we refer for a fuller discussion of the subject to Professor 
Rawlinson's invaluable work, " The Five Great Monarchies 
of the Ancient Eastern World." 2 

1 Bunsen's "Philosophy of Universal History," vol. I., p. 191. 
2 Vol. I., Chapter iii., pp. 47-60. 



CHAP. XIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 259 



1. By classical and other traditions, Ethiopians have been 
described as dwelling on the Persian Gulf, and as being 
associated, at the same time, with the inhabitants of the Nile 
Valley. 1 Without attaching much importance to Homer's 
early statement by itself, regarding the Ethiopians as 
"divided" and dwelling "at the ends of the earth towards 
the setting and the rising sun," 1 on account of the conflicting 
criticism to which it has been subjected; it must be conceded 
that it has much weight when connected with Strabo's refer- 
ence to the Ethiopians having been understood, according 
to the " old opinion " of the Greeks, to occupy the south 
coast of both Asia and Africa, and to be divided by the 
Persian Gulf into two branches, — the Asiatic and African. 
This reference is all the more important, because taken from 
Ephorus, and because regarded by Strabo himself as indica- 
tive only of the ignorance of the Greeks. 

Again, tradition connects Memnon, king of Ethiopia, 
on the one hand, with the founding of Susa in Asia, and 
with the leadership of combined Susianians and Ethiopians 
for the assistance of Priam in Troy; and, on the other hand, 
with the Ethiopians on the Nile, under the Egyptian name 
of king Amunoph III., whose statue became known as "the 
Vocal Memnon." There were palaces called " Memnonia " 
both in Egypt and Susa, and the supposition that Memnon 
built them is very plausible. " Memnon thus unites the 
Eastern and Western Ethiopians; and the less we regard him 
as an historical personage, the more must we view him as 
personifying the ethnic identity of the two races." 2 

Other traditions show that the Greeks had, at one time, an 
unquestioning belief in an Asiatic Ethiopia ; and whatever 



1 Homer's "Odyssey," I., 23, 24. 
2 "The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient World," vol. I., pp. 59, 60. 



26o BLENDING LIGHTS. [chap. XIII. 



allusions have been made to the subject by the earliest 
historians, have confirmed that belief. Hesiod, Herodotus, 
and Eusebius have been cited as witnesses to the same pre- 
vailing ideas ; but there were others besides the Greeks — as, 
for instance, the Armenians — who cherished similar tradi- 
tions; and although these wide-spread convictions varied, 
and, considered separately, may seem to have little weight, 
yet, when associated, they constitute valid proof that, in 
accordance with Scripture, the Chaldseans were originally 
Hamites, not Shemites, — Ethiopians, not Aramaeans. 

2. As the evidence' from tradition, which we have placed 
in the fore-ground, was long almost balanced by conflicting 
statements from other sources, scholars were much divided 
in opinion ; but the question has been conclusively settled 
in favour of the Bible, by unexpected proofs from another 
quarter. By the results of research in languages, what some 
thought was only apparently established by concurrent 
traditions, has been placed altogether beyond dispute. 
After the explorations in Assyrian mounds had yielded to 
the student of history many precious documents, with ample 
evidence of a later well-defined Babylonian language, the 
smaller and less attractive mounds of " Chaldaea Proper " 
were carefully searched ; and, to the surprise and delight of 
every philologist, there turned up the remains of another form 
of language, differing from that which the Assyrian mounds 
had previously revealed, and showing closer relations to the 
older language of Susiana, whose early inhabitants tradition 
had described as Hamitic. Its vocabulary, according to Sir 
H. Rawlinson, "is decidedly Cushite or Ethiopian," and the 
modern languages to which it makes the nearest approaches 
are those of Southern Arabia and Abyssinia, — the old tradi- 
tions have thus been confirmed by comparative philology, 
and both are side-lights to Scripture." A Chaldaean or 



CHAP. XIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 261 



Babylonian kingdom existed long before another empire 
was founded by the descendants of Shem, and thus " An 
Eastern Ethiopia, instead of being the invention of bewildered 
ignorance, is proved to be a reality, which, henceforth, it 
will be the extreme of Scepticism to question j and the 
primitive race which bore sway in Chaldsea proper is de- 
monstrated to have belonged to this ethnic type." x 

The very earliest historical announcements in Scripture, 
after having been long twisted out of their natural course by 
Christian as well as by other interpreters, have at last not 
only been freed from perversions, but have received the most 
signal acknowledgment of their perfect accuracy. The brief, 
yet definite, Bible intimations regarding the origin and the 
relations of the Egyptian, Chaldsean, and Assyrian empires, 
have not only had no parallel in any other history, but they 
have become the key to open what would otherwise have 
been for ever hidden or obscure. 

In passing over some of the more general intimations in 
the tenth chapter of Genesis, — as, for instance, those referring 
to Shem, Elam, Eber, and Asshur, — we omit much that is 
valuable in evidence, that we may have the opportunity of 
more fully noticing those broader statements on which com- 
paratively recent discoveries have shed much light. 

Our first view of Egypt is obtained when Abraham, who 
had been living a patriarchal chief in Palestine, was con- 
strained by famine to seek support in Egypt for both himself 
and his household. And we find that, even in that early 
age, there was a king Pharaoh ; that Egypt had a settled 
Government, with "princes" who acted as the king's 
subordinates; and that the country was rich enough in 
agricultural resources to provide assistance to neighbouring 



Ancient Monarchies," vol. L, p. 65. 



262 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIII. 

tribes in the time of famine. That these facts are in 
harmony with profane history no one can doubt, who 
remembers that, even then, some of the great Pyramids 
were in existence as witnesses indirectly confirming the 
Bible reference to a comparatively advanced civilisation. 

A remarkable historical sketch of the capture of Lot, 
Abraham's nephew, and of his rescue from the hands of 
Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, although assisted by his five 
vassal kings, reveals the rise of a new or Elamitic power, 
which was displacing the old Babylonian or Hamitic king- 
dom; and of the overthrow or breaking up of this early 
kingdom, decided indications have been given in documents 
recently disinterred from the mounds of Mesopotamia. In 
them, incursions and plunderings have been recorded, which 
were the evident forerunners of greater distresses and of 
ultimate ruin, and the recovery of tablets is expected, which 
will determine the date of Abraham's contest with Che- 
dorlaomer, and, consequently, of his visit to Egypt ; and to 
such recovery Bible students look not with anxiety, but with 
the most hopeful interest. About 200 years after the time 
of Abraham, the history of Joseph brings Egypt under re- 
view, with a pictorial vividness which has its parallel in no 
other record for at least more than a thousand years. When 
we combine the scattered references in the later chapters of 
Genesis, they represent a remarkably compact organisation. 
The light falls on no strictly primitive people, nor barbarous 
customs, but on a very highly civilised community, skilled 
in agriculture, social in habit, and singularly accomplished 
in various branches of art. The monarchy which we noted 
in Abraham's time continues, and the king still bears the 
title of Pharaoh. He is absolute, or nearly so, committing 
men to prison, and releasing them; or, if he please, ordering 
their executions, appointing officers over the whole land, 



CHAP. XIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 263 



and taxing it apparently at his pleasure ; raising a foreigner 
suddenly to the second position in the kingdom, and re- 
quiring all, without exception, to render him obedience. " At 
the same time, the king has counsellors, or ministers, 
elders of his house, and others whose advice he asks, and 
without whose sanction he does not seem to act in important 
matters." He had a body guard under "a captain," a 
" chief confectioner," a " chief cup-bearer." He rides in a 
chariot, and all pay him homage. There are distinct classes 
of soldiers, priests, physicians, sacred scribes, magicians, and 
herdsmen. As betokening the stage of civilisation which 
had been reached, there is mention made of fine linen, 
golden chains, silver drinking-cups, waggons, chariots, em- 
balming, and coffins. In addition to these glimpses, we 
have it stated that they carried burdens on the head ; that 
they sat at meat, and did not recline, as was the common 
custom in the East ; and that " every shepherd was an 
abomination unto the Egyptians." 1 All these peculiarities 
are fully represented in the monuments, but especially is 
the last made prominent. Sir J. G. Wilkinson tells us that 
the artists delighted on all occasions in representing the 
shepherds as "dirty and unshaven ;" and that, on the tombs 
near the Pyramids of Geezeh, they are " caricatured as a 
deformed and unseemly race." 2 

A fuller and minuter series of facts will be found in a 
most instructive little volume by Professor Rawlinson, 
who adds, — " It may be broadly stated that, in this entire 
description, there is not a single fraction which is not in 
harmony with what we know of the Egypt of this remote 
period from other sources. Nay, more, almost every point 



1 Genesis, chapters xxxvii. to xlvii. 

2 "Ancient Egyptians," vol. II., p. 16. 



264 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIII. 

in it is confirmed, either by the classical writers, by the 
monuments, or by both." 1 

In the Book of Exodus there is a very remarkable history, 
some of the details of which have received striking confirma- 
tion in monuments, and by profane writers. They afford 
unmistakable indications of the departure of the Israelites. 
There are passages . in the writings of Manetho and 
Chseremon, Egyptian priests of high scholarship, which, 
though somewhat confused and contradictory, are yet so 
specific as to the names of Moses and Joseph, and, in some 
instances, so minute as to facts, that the following con- 
clusions may be held established : — (i) That there was a 
tradition of an Exodus from Egypt of persons whom they 
regarded as unclean ; (2) that they connected this Exodus 
with the names of Joseph and Moses ; and (3) that they 
made Canaan their country, and placed the event in the 
reign of Amenophis, son of Rameses, about the year 
B.C. 1400. - 

The indirect testimonies to the historical truth of Exodus 
as dependent on the usages of Egypt, are, in some respects, 
more valuable than the more positive statements which have 
been adduced. Among these, there is mention made of 
brick-making without straw, under taskmasters, who made 
the lives of the Israelites bitter with hard bondage ; of the 
use of papyrus for boats, furnaces, kneading-troughs, hand- 
mills ; of the use of chariots in war ; of the king leading his 
horses to battle ; of the king and his princes fighting from 
chariots ; of the king hearing complaints in person ; in 
short, the allusions to public, social, and domestic modes of 
life in that early period are so numerous in Scripture, and 



1 " Historical Illustrations of the Old Testament," pp. 41, 42. 
2 " Historical Illustrations," pp. 59, 61. 



CHAP. XIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 265 



have been found to be so literally exact, that the reasoning 
of rationalists, on the plea that they were all mythical, has 
been generally abandoned ; and we might at once proceed 
to another section in this field of inquiry, were it not that it 
may be of advantage to some Bible students to notice two 
or three of the more prominent facts which rise, distinct and 
columnar, in the parallel lines of sacred and secular records. 

From three to four hundred years after the Exodus, Egypt 
in the west, and the other kingdoms in the east, had little 
or no direct intercourse with the Israelites, who were under 
the necessity, during that long period, of struggling with the 
Ammonites, Moabites, Amorites, Canaanites, and Philistines, 
— races whose literature, if they had any, has been lost. 
Egypt and Assyria, during the same period, had great 
military resources ; but, as is evident from their records, they 
had undertaken no expeditions which brought them into 
contact with the territory of the Israelites. They therefore 
say nothing regarding them, and this silence is in accord with 
the absence, in the Israelitish history, of all reference to 
either Egypt or Assyria. This is one of those incidental 
proofs of the historical reliableness of Scripture, the value of 
which it would be difficult to over-estimate. 

After the Exodus, the first and most outstanding fact is 
the grandeur of Solomon's reign, and the extent of his 
dominion, as it ranged from the Mediterranean Sea to the 
Euphrates. Under David the kingdom was greatly extended, 
but by Solomon it was consolidated and adorned. Between 
two hitherto powerful and menacing monarchies, the Hebrew 
kingdom rose rapidly in splendour, and for more than half 
a century dazzled them both into dimness. To those 
accustomed to study only the slow growth of Western nations, 
that period may seem short in the history of empires ; 
but in the East, such sudden outcomes of imperial power 



266 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIII. 



and splendour were not uncommon. While admitting this, 
it seems almost incredible that this comparatively weak and 
insignificant kingdom should have attained such supremacy ; 
and it can only be accounted for on the supposition that the 
two great monarchies on each side of Solomon's dominions 
had been weakened by internal troubles or by foreign aggres- 
sion, or had sunk into that national effeminacy which luxury 
almost invariably creates. Had either Assyria or Egypt been 
as powerful as formerly, the Judaean triumphs in David's 
reign, and the peaceful grandeur of Solomon's sway would 
not have been possible. The greatness of the Hebrew 
kingdom, therefore, presupposes corresponding weakness in 
both Egypt and iVssyria ; and it was so. Evidence has been 
obtained from the monuments of both countries, which 
clearly proves that, at the very time when the Israelitish 
power was in the ascendant, they were both under a cloud 
and enfeebled. For nearly two centuries their historians are 
silent, and the very names of their monarchs remain un- 
known. Egypt began to wane about 1200 B.C., and Assyria 
about 1 100 B.C.; but about 990 B.C. they had largely 
recovered their lost position. It was throughout this period 
the triumphs of the Hebrew monarchy were gradually 
achieved ; they fit exactly into its circumstances ; and 
through the Assyrian and Egyptian gloom which hovered 
on both sides of Palestine, the student of history can easily 
discern the splendour of Solomon's reign. In the arts and 
architecture of that Hebrew kingdom, he can see the image, 
or rather the repetition, of all that was best in Egyptian and 
Assyrian models. The ruins of Nineveh and Palestine 
are mutually illustrative, and they explain the magnificent 
edifices with which Solomon adorned Jerusalem. He 
gathered from the East and the West all that was imposing 
in outline, as well as all that was intricate or delicate in 



CHAP. XIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 267 

art ; and reproduced them in felicitous combinations. The 
works in which he excelled could only have been accom- 
plished in times of peace, and when access was easy to those 
great buildings which were hallowed by antiquity, and en- 
riched by all that was attractive to what at that period was 
" modern taste." The feebleness of Assyria and Egypt, 
accounts for their comparative obscurity, and not only for the 
general extension of the Hebrew dominions, but for the 
possibility of his carrying on and completing, in presence of 
naturally jealous monarchs, those great works which are thus 
described in the Bible, — " And it came to pass, at the end 
of twenty years, wherein Solomon had built the house of the 
Lord and his own house, that the cities which Huram had 
restored to Solomon, Solomon built them, and caused the 
children of Israel to dwell there. . . . And he built 
Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the store cities which he 
built in Hamath. Also, he built Beth-horon the upper, and 
Beth-horon the nether, fenced cities with walls, gates, and 
bars -, and Baalath, and all the store cities that Solomon had, 
and all the chariot cities, and the cities of the horsemen, and 
all that Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, and in 
Lebanon, and throughout all the land of his dominion." 1 

The ruins of Tadmor — or Palmyra, as Alexander the 
Great named it — are to this day " the wonder " of travellers 
in the East ; and as this city was within about twenty miles 
of the Euphrates, it is evident that Assyria had lost its 
jealousy or its strength, for otherwise Solomon could not 
have found there opportunity and scope for such a magnifi- 
cent architectural enterprise. Judging from the facts re- 
corded in the Bible, the student of history was led to infer 
that both Assyria and Egypt were at that time weak, and 



1 II. Chronicles viii. 1-6. 






268 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIII. 

this opinion has received abundant confirmation from such 
records as these two countries have of late supplied. 

Towards the close of Solomon's reign, Egypt began to 
revive under the vigorous administration of Shishak, the 
"Sheshonk" of the hieroglyphics, and the Sesonchis of 
Manetho. Jeroboam having fallen under the suspicion and 
displeasure of Solomon, fled to him for protection. "Solomon 
sought, therefore, to kill Jeroboam; and Jeroboam arose, and 
fled into Egypt, unto Shishak king of Egypt, and was in 
Egypt until the death of Solomon." 1 After Solomon's 
death, when Rehoboam, his son, was running his career of 
despotism and folly, Shishak, as the Bible has told us, " came 
up against Jerusalem, with 12,000 chariots, 60,000 horse, 
men, and people without number." The date is very dis- 
tinctly given, — "And it came to pass, that, in the fifth year 
of king Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against 
Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the Lord." 
..." And he took the fenced cities which pe?'tained to 
Judah, and came to Jerusalem." . . . "So Shishak king 
of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the 
treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the 
king's house ; he took all : he carried away also the shields 
of gold which Solomon had made." 2 

Two things are here worthy of special notice, — the first is, 
that in this distinct statement as to time, we have the first 
fixed point which historians can use for the establishment of 
chronological data ; and the second is, that this portion of 
Bible history has received the fullest confirmation, by its 
narrative having been reproduced, with wonderful exactness, 
in the only memorial of Shishak's invasion which is known 
to be in existence. It was found in one of the courts of the 



1 I. Kings xi. 40. 2 II. Chronicles xii. 2, 4, and 9. 



CHAP. XIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 269 

great Palace of Karnac at Thebes. In the inscription there 
is a hieroglyph, which Champollion has thus translated, — 
" Pharaoh, governor of Lower Egypt, approved of the sun, 
the beloved of Amoun — Sheshonk " (Shishak). 

A Jewish figure is represented, as part of Shishak's 
triumphal procession, with a tablet on his breast, and a 
hieroglyph which has been thus rendered, "Ioudah Malek," 
— i.e., King of Judah. That itself is a very decided testimony 
to the truth of Scripture from an unexpected quarter, and it 
is still further borne out in the inscriptions connected with 
the same history, in which there are represented the chiefs 
of more than thirty nations; and the names in the list of the 
"fenced cities" taken by Shishak have their counterpart in a 
number of the cities of Judah. It is true that, in the list of 
Shishak's captive cities, there are some which might be sup- 
posed to be favourable to Jeroboam, as their territory is that of 
the Ten Tribes, and they should, of course, have had Shishak's 
protection ; but the fact is only an additional proof of Scrip- 
ture history, for in the territory of the Ten Tribes there were 
those, chiefly among the Levites, who favoured Rehoboam, 
and resisted Shishak's protege. It is evident that Shishak 
had passed into ' the territory of the Ten Tribes, and had 
discriminatively punished those towns and " suburbs" of 
which the Levites might be said to have possession. Their 
preference for Rehoboam is thus noticed in II. Chronicles 
xi. 13, 14, — "And the priests and the Levites that were in 
all Israel resorted to him (Rehoboam) out of all their coasts; 
for the Levites left their suburbs and their possession, and came 
to Judah and Jerusalem; for Jeroboam and his sons had cast 
them off from executing the priest's office unto the Lord." 
This inscription, which has at last yielded up all its truth, 
has, by its minute record of the cities taken, incidentally 
confirmed the brief history of Shishak's movements as it has 
been given in the Bible. 



270 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIII. 

Without further following this twofold record of the 
Egyptian connection with Palestine, we may notice the recent 
very singular evidences of the truth of Bible history which 
has attracted the attention of the civilised world, through 
the discovery (i) of the cities of Bashan, and (2) of the 
Moabite Stone. 

1. Few can have read the following verses in Deuteronomy 
without wonder, or without the notion that a mistake had 
occurred in transcribing the numbers. " So the Lord our God 
delivered into our hands Og also, the king of Bashan, and all 
his people; and we smote him, until none was left to him re- 
maining. And we took all his cities at that time ; there was 
not a city which we took not from them, threescore cities, 
all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. All 
these cities were fenced with high walls, gates, and bars ; 
beside unwalled towns a great many." 1 " Sixty Cities!!" 
"Fenced, and with high walls ! " "Impossible, it surely means 
six, or at most sixteen. It is almost inconceivable to have 
sixty cities within the bounds of so small a- territory]" Such, 
doubtless, have been the thoughts, if not the expressions, of 
many humble yet earnest readers of the Bible. "Often, 
when reading the passage," says Dr. Porter, in his fascinat- 
ing work, " I used to think that some strange statistical 
mystery hung over it, for how could a province measuring 
not more than thirty miles by twenty, support such a 
number of fortified cities, especially when the greater part 
of it was a wilderness of rocks ? But mysterious, incredible 
as this seemed, on the spot, with my own eyes, / have seen 
that it is literally true. The cities are there to this day. 
Some of them retain the ancient names recorded in the 
Bible. The boundaries of Argob are as clearly defined by the 

1 Deuteronomy iii. 3-5. 






CHAP. XIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 271 



hand of nature as those of our own island home. These 
ancient cities of Bashan contain, probably, the very oldest 
specimens of architecture now existing in the world." 1 
Although some have doubted the antiquity of these buildings, 
the evidence is in favour of Dr. Porter's conclusions ; but 
apart from the question of age, the crowding together of so 
many cities, which seemed impossible, has been established as 
a fact, and it therefore nullifies the reasoning of the Sceptic. 

Although within comparatively easy reach of European 
travellers, Bashan was till lately comparatively unknown, 
and Christians read of it in the Bible with half listless 
wonder. Although not named in the New Testament, its 
scenes are inwrought with its history. " It was down the 
western slopes of Bashan's high table-land that the demons, 
expelled by Jesus from the poor man, chased the herd of 
swine into the Sea of Galilee. It was on the grassy slopes of 
Bashan's hills that the multitudes were twice miraculously fed 
by the merciful Saviour. And that ' high mountain ' to 
which he led Peter, and James, and John, and on whose 
summit they beheld the glories of the transfiguration, was 
that very Hermon which forms the boundary of Bashan." 2 
It is strange that desolation so complete as that by which 
the cities of Bashan have been overwhelmed, should have been 
so long concealed. The " poet prophets " of Israel have 
described the stateliness of its oaks, the magnificence of its 
scenery, the luxuriance of its pastures, the fertility of its 
plains, and the qualities of its flocks and herds; and 
modern travellers have confirmed to the letter the accuracy 
of their glowing delineations. 

While the varied aspects of Bashan's landscapes continue 



1 " The Giant Cities of Bashan and Syria's Holy Places," by the Rev. 
J. M. Porter, M.A. 1869. pp. 13, 14. * Ibid., p. 16. 



272 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIII. 

in the main unchanged, its cities are deserted, and the still- 
ness of death pervades them. While the ancient cities and 
villages of western Palestine, with a few exceptions, have 
been so destroyed, that not one stone remains above another, 
and in some instances their very site is unknown, and 
while Jerusalem itself has lost its ancient architectural 
grandeur, " the state of Bashan is totally different ; it is 
literally crowded with towns and large villages ; and though 
the vast majority of them are deserted, they are not ruined. 
. . . Many of the houses in the ancient cities of Bashan 
are perfect, as if only finished yesterday. The walls are 
sound, the roofs unbroken, the doors and even the window- 
shutters in their places." It is astonishing to learn that, in 
some of these ancient cities, from two to five hundred houses 
have been found perfect, but without a solitary inhabitant. 
From the battlements of the Castle of Salcah, Dr. Porter 
counted no fewer than thirty towns and villages dotting the 
vast plain, many of them perfect as when first built, and 
" yet, for more than five centuries, there has not been an 
inhabitant in one of them." 

All that has been recently discovered has completely 
established the descriptions in the writings of Moses and 
the Prophets. To the very letter their statements have been 
vindicated by architectural remains, which are without a 
parallel. In how many instances, in all parts of the world, 
have cities been founded, have flourished, been demolished, 
rebuilt, and a second time swept off, so that their very site is 
forgotten and lost ? And how has Bashan escaped ? Why 
are the cities, their walls, and their houses still perfect, their 
stone roofs unmoved, and their stone doors hanging on their 
hinges ? Why are the streets tenantless and silent as a city 
of the dead? The purposes of God in all this we cannot 
know; but may we not believe it to be at least probable 



CHAP. XIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 273 

that, in His providence, they have been preserved to be 
witnesses to the truth of this portion of His blessed Word, 
when scepticism or infidelity should be casting discredit on 
its statements regarding this strange giant people and their 
crowding cities ? 

2. After the kingdom of Israel had been convulsed by 
successive revolutions, and disgraced by the assassination of 
two of its kings, "All Israel made Omri, the captain of the 
host, king over Israel." 1 No sooner did he gain the throne 
than he began to rule with an unrelenting hand, until he at 
last succeeded in so consolidating his kingdom, with Samaria 
as its capital, that he won the respect of neighbouring 
monarchs, and Assyrian records bear testimony to the 
homage paid him. To these records we can only allude, as 
our object is, in the meantime, to fix attention on that 
strange witness to the truth of Scripture, whose voice in the 
solitudes of Moab unexpectedly aroused the scholarship, the 
scepticism, and the Christianity of the world. The circum- 
stances in which the discovery of " the Moabite Stone," on 
the site of the ancient Dibon, was first made, are too 
generally known to require here a detailed account. The 
Rev. Mr. Klein, a Prussian, employed by the Church 
Missionary Society, first saw it, when it was unbroken \ but 
no sooner did the Arabs observe the peculiar interest which 
was taken in it, than, jealous of the interference of the 
Franks and Turks, they broke it, and concealed its fragments. 
By the judicious and persevering efforts of Captain Warren, 
R.E., the agent of the Palestine Exploration Fund, the 
fragments have been recovered. The inscription is in the 
Phoenician character, and the language itself is scarcely dis- 
tinguishable from the Hebrew. The translation which has 

1 I. Kings xvi. 16. 
T 



274 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIII. 

been published represents the contest of the Moabites with 
Omri, and their ultimate triumph. Between Israel and Moab, 
according to the Scriptures, there was a perpetual struggle 
during the thirty-four years' successive reigns of Omri and 
his son Ahab ; and to this the inscription very clearly refers. 
Moab had for a long period the worst of it, 1 and paid heavy 
tribute to Omri and Ahab; but Mesha put an end to it. 
The Bible thus speaks of the oppressive tax paid, — " And 
Mesha king of Moab was a sheep-master, and rendered unto 
the king of Israel 100,000 lambs and 100,000 rams, with the 
wool. But it came to pass, when Ahab was dead, that the 
king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel." 2 

It is perhaps unnecessary to quote more than the follow- 
ing sentences in the inscription : — " I, Mesha, son of Jabin, 
king of Moab. My father reigned over Moab thirty years, 
and I reigned after my father. I erected this altar unto 
Chemosh, who granted me victory over my enemies, the 
people of Omri, king of Israel, who, together with his son 
{Ahab), oppressed Moab a long period, — even forty years. 
For though Chemosh was angry against the land, during my 
reign he was favourable to Moab, as well as to the Temple, 
which Israel had continually wasted. The men of Gad 
dwelt in the district of Kiriathaim from olden times, and there 
the king of Israel built a fortress for himself, which Chemosh 
bade me go and take from him. Then I went in the middle 
of the night, and fought against Israel from break of day 
until noon, and slew all the people in the town, to the 
delight of Chemosh, the god of Moab. I took from them 
all the sacred vessels of Jehovah, and offered them to 
Chemosh, my god, instead." 3 

1 II. Kings iii. 4-27; and II. Chronicles xx. 2 II. Kings iii. 4, 5. 
3 See "Recovery of Jerusalem," p. 496; and Dr. Ginsburg's Essay 
on "The Moabite Stone." 



CHAP. XIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 275 

The reference to Chemosh, the national deity of Moab, is 
quite in harmony with the Bible allusion to Chemosh as the 
abomination of Moab ; x and the whole inscription betokens 
the long subjection of Moab, and the final triumph of the 
Moabites. For sixty-five years, there is in the Bible no 
further notice of the Moabites, — not until after Elisha's 
death, when, as we are told, " the bands of the Moabites 
invaded the land at the coming in of the year." 2 The 
silence of Scripture on this subject is itself an acknowledg- 
ment of the Moabitish success and independence. The 
inscription further gives an account of Mesha's triumph, and 
of his re-organising and strengthening his long-oppressed and 
sorely-wasted kingdom. This testimony is altogether singular, 
and cannot be set aside or modified by any possible ingenuity 
of mere criticism. 

After this period, the historical illustrations of Scripture 
are so numerous, that only a few can be noticed; but 
these, taken in connection with the evidence which has been 
already adduced, constitute an insuperable barrier to that 
destructive criticism in which rationalists have long taken 
great delight. 

Without dwelling on the intermingling evidence from the 
Bible and Assyrian records regarding the general condition 
of Syria, and the leagues of contending tribes, a difficulty 
may be noticed which has been created through the intro- 
duction in the Bible history of the name of the Assyrian 
monarch " Pul," who is not acknowledged in any one of the 
Assyrian records of that period. He is described in II. Kings 
xv. 19, and I. Chronicles v. 26, as having compelled 
Menahem, king of Israel, to pay him a thousand talents, being 
the condition of withdrawing his troops from his territory, 

1 I. Kings xi. 7. 2 II. Kings xiii. 20. 



276 BLENDING LIGHTS, [CHAP. XIII. 

and as having been historically associated with "Tiglath- 
pileser," in carrying the Jews into captivity, " even 
the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of 
Manasseh." While it is interesting to observe that this is 
the first notice of Assyria in the Bible since the time of 
Nimrod, and that Pul is the first Assyrian invader of the 
Jewish territory, it is necessary to inquire how it is that, 
while Tiglath-pileser is named in the Assyrian records, Pul 
is not. 

Although the Assyrian annals do not recognise Pul as one 
of their kings, he is distinctly named by Berosus, the earliest 
and most reliable historian to whom appeal can be made, as 
reigning at this time, — not, however, as an " Assyrian," but 
as a Chat 7 decern monarch. As he reigned at Babylon, and 
not at Nineveh, he is not acknowledged to be an Assyrian 
ruler. But why, it may be asked, did the Bible historians 
not correctly designate him "King of Babylon?" Pro- 
fessor Rawlinson has fully considered this anomaly in his 
"Ancient Monarchies," and has more briefly stated, in his 
recent little work, "Historical Illustrations," what appears to 
be the true solution of the difficulty. The Jews, after the 
rise of the Assyrian empire, did not minutely discriminate be- 
tween what was strictly Assyrian and what was the older, or 
Chaldcean, authority. Besides, there was evidently much im- 
perial confusion at this time; it is clearly shewn by the annals 
that the Assyrian empire was temporarily disorganised ; 
some of the provinces had broken off from the royal sway in 
Nineveh; and as the monarchs there may have held the 
reins of government with a slack hand, a bold and ambitious 
Babylonian prince, like Pul, supported by some of the revolted 
Assyrian provinces, and ruling over that part of Assyria 
which r was nearest to them, would naturally enough be re- 
garded and spoken of by the Jews as an Assyrian king. 



CHAP. XIII. j BLENDING LIGHTS. 277 

" He was a Chaldaean who, in the troublous times that fell 
upon Assyria about b.c. 763-760, obtained the dominion 
over Western Mesopotamia \ and who, invading Syria from 
the quarter whence the Assyrian armies were wont to come, 
and being at the head of Assyrian troops, appeared as much 
an Assyrian monarch as the princes that held their court at 
Nineveh." 1 The designation of Pul as king of Assyria, 
although he may have been only a pretender, is not only 
intelligible, but, when taken in connection with the fact that 
Pul, according to Berosus, did reign as king of Chaldaea 
exactly at this time, is one of those indirect or incidental 
testimonies to the truth of Scripture which every one 
accepts. 

Tiglath-pileser is closely associated with Pul, and the 
records of his life intenveave with those of the Bible regard- 
ing Azariah and Ahaz, Menahem, Pekah, and Hoshea. 
When Azariah was king of Judah, Pekah was king of 
Israel ; and " In the days of Pekah king of Israel, came 
Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel- 
beth-maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and 
Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried 
them captive to Assyria." - 

Soon after this war, another followed which lasted for 
several years. Damascus and Samaria, with their kings 
Pekah and Rezin, uniting, declared war against Ahaz, who 
in his turn applied to Tiglath-pileser, and pleaded for help 
against the kings of Syria and Israel. " And Ahaz took the 
silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord, 
and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a 
present to the king of Assyria. And the king of Assyria 
hearkened unto him : for the king of Assyria went up 

1 "Historical Illustrations," pp. 122, 124. 8 II. Kings xv.29. 



278 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIII. 

against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it 
captive to Kir, and slew Rezin" 1 

This, in the end, proved disastrous policy on the part of 
Ahaz, for it not only closed the history of Syria as a separate 
kingdom after it had extended through ten generations, but 
it led to the commencement of the captivity, and stimulated 
the desire of the Assyrian king to obtain more of that gold 
which the weakness of the Jewish monarch had exposed to 
view. Although Ahaz went to Damascus to congratulate 
Tiglath-pileser on his success, and adopted the plan of an 
idolatrous altar, which had pleased him, he afterwards had 
the mortification of finding himself left unaided in the 
struggle to recover the places which had been taken, during 
this war, by the Philistines and the Edomites. " And Tig- 
lath-pileser king of Assyria came unto him, and distressed 
him, but strengthened him not" 2 Ahaz abandoned principle, 
and was enfeebled by policy ; he went from one depth of 
infamy to another in idolatrous methods, and when he died 
he was not brought " into the sepulchres of the kings of 
Israel." There is a notice of the defeat and death of Rezin 
in one of the inscriptions now in the British Museum, 3 
and Tiglath-pileser himself records the fact, that previously 
in the fifth year of his reign, he had defeated a great army 
under Azariah, king of Judah. 

To the Bible alone are we indebted for a distinct account 
of the movements of Shalmaneser, as successor of Tiglath- 
pileser. The annals ; of his kingdom were all destroyed 
by the usurper who followed him ; but satisfactory evidence 
from other sources has been forthcoming to show that his 
reign fits into the place which the Bible assigns him. From 



1 II. Kings xvi. 7, 8, 9. 2 II. Chronicles xxviii. 20. 

3 " Ancient Monarchies," vol. II., p. 132 ; 2nd edition. 



CHAP. XIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 279 



both the Phoenicians and the Greeks, we learn that Shalman- 
eser not only did reign in Assyria, but that he contended 
with the Phoenicians both by land and sea j in short, that 
he overran the whole of Phoenicia, with the exception of 
Insular Tyre, which he besieged for no less than five years. 
For this information we are indebted to Menander of 
Ephesus ; x and in the minute exactness of its references to 
Shalmaneser we have a fresh proof of the historical value of 
the Bible. 

The blank which occurs in the Assyrian annals has been 
filled up by such direct announcements in Scripture as the 
following : — " Against him (Hoshea) came up Shalmaneser, 
king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and 
gave him presents. And the king of Assyria found con- 
spiracy in Hoshea : for he had sent messengers to So, king 
of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as 
he had done year by year; therefore the king of Assyria 
shut him up, and bound him in prison. Then the king of 
Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to 
Samaria, and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of 
Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried 
Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and in 
Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes." 2 

In the course of the three years' siege, there were 
evidently stirring scenes in the Assyrian empire. A new 
power was at work behind Shalmaneser's besieging army, 
and in some way it became connected with it before Samaria ; 
for in the next chapter, at the ninth verse, it is said, — "And 
it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which 
was the seventh year of Hoshea, son of Elah, king of 

1 Menand., Eph. ap. Joseph. Ant., Ind., ix., 14. See "Ancient 
Monarchies," vol. II., p. 405. 2 II. Kings xvii. 3-6. 



280 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIII. 

Israel, that Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up against 
Samaria, and besieged it. And at the end of three years 
they took it." . . . Let it be observed that it is not 
he (Shalmaneser) took it ; which would have been the most 
natural expression, and most in accordance with the style of 
the narrative. It is also worthy of remark that, in the sixth 
verse of the preceding chapter, when Hoshea is named, 
and when we should have expected with similar directness 
the name Shalmaneser, it is dropped, and " The king of 
Assyria" is substituted. It is clear that some disturbing 
force had come suddenly into the midst of Shalmaneser's 
movements ; but how ? or whence ? none could answer. It 
did not appear from the historical books that any king 
reigned between Shalmaneser and Sennacherib. In the 
twentieth chapter of Isaiah there is a formal reference to 
Sargon, as having spread terror and desolation far and wide 
in Syria and in Egypt ; but as the name occurred nowhere 
else in Scripture, critics were divided in their conclusions ; 
while some held Sargon to be the same as Shalmaneser, others 
held him to be identical with Sennacherib, and others with 
Esar-haddon. For two thousand five hundred years, Isaiah's 
mention of Sargon remained inexplicable ; but the mystery 
has been at last removed, and the historical delineation by 
the prophet Isaiah has been proved to be literally accurate. 
Sargon, as a usurper, had taken advantage of Shalmaneser's 
absence at the siege of Samaria, and having gained suc- 
cesses with his army, he came up to Samaria, and the result 
was, as stated above, "they took it;" hence the next announce- 
ment, that the king of Assyria, implying Sargon, whose 
name or position may not have been very clearly understood 
by the historian at the time, took Samaria; and having 
carried Israel captive, placed the prisoners in Halah and 
Habor, and " in the cities of the Medes." 



CHAP. XIII.] B'LEXDING LIGHTS. 281 

There can be no hesitation now in admitting both the 
accuracy of Isaiah's statements, and the scrupulous attention 
to facts shown by the historian of II. Kings, for the name of 
Sargon is found on the Assyrian monuments, and the fullest 
accounts of his reign are given. As he was the supplanter, 
not the lawful successor, of Shalmaneser, he naturally 
attempted to blot his name altogether out of the Assyrian 
annals, and he so far accomplished his object that in them 
no traces of Shalmaneser's reign have yet been found. 

Through the labours of M. Botta, it has been placed 
beyond dispute that Sargon was the builder of the palace of 
Khorsabad, and in its ruins full details of his reign are 
given. He had seized and annexed to Assyria some of the 
towns of Media, and hence the minute reference in Scripture 
to what, in such circumstances, would be most natural, — 
his sending Hebrew captives " to the cities of the Medes." 
Although the inscription which contained an account of his 
campaign against Samaria has been almost completely de- 
stroyed, there is another which has been well preserved, in 
which it is stated that he carried 27,280 Israelites into cap- 
tivity " from Samaria and the several districts or provincial 
towns dependent on that city," 1 and there is some evidence 
of his having compelled the kings of Egypt to pay him 
tribute. 2 

It is agreeably surprising to find a minute reference to a 
comparatively insignificant fact in a great campaign, like that 
made by Isaiah to the taking of Ashdod by Sargon, fully 
confirmed by the Assyrian records. This and similar details 
have been very clearly illustrated. There can be little doubt 
that the description in the tenth chapter of Isaiah has refer- 
ence to Sargon as having been the conqueror of Carchemish 

1 Layard's " Nineveh and Babylon," p. 618. 2 Ibid, 620. 



282 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIII. 

as well as of Samaria, and evidence is adduced from an 
inscription found at Nineveh, in which, among other things, 
it is said — " The mighty king Sargon waged war against the 
wicked, and having overcome Pisiri, king of Syria, placed a 
governor in the city of Carchemish." 

Sennacherib, it is admitted, was Sargon's successor, and 
there is a remarkable correspondence between the account 
in the Bible and the recently discovered Assyrian annals. 
Of the outset of his movements, it is said in the Bible : 
"Now, in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did 
Sennacherib king of Assyria come against all the fenced 
cities of Judah, and took them. And Hezekiah king of 
Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have 
offended ; return from me : that which thou puttest on me 
will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto 
Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver, 
and thirty talents of gold. And Hezekiah gave him all the 
silver that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the 
treasures of the king's house." 1 In the inscriptions which 
have been translated, the Bible references to " all the fenced 
cities of yadah" and to the thirty talents of gold, have their 
counterpart. The following statement by Sennacherib 
thoroughly coalesces with that of the Bible :— " Because 
Hezekiah king of Judah would not submit to my yoke, I 
came up against him, and by force of arms, and by the 
might of my power, I took forty-six of his strong fenced cities; 
and of the smaller towns which were scattered about, I took 
and plundered a countless number ; and from their places 
I captured and carried off as spoil 200,150 people, old and 
young, male and female, together with horses and mares, 
asses and camels, oxen and sheep, a countless multitude. 

1 II. Kings xviii. 13, 15. 



CHAP. XIII J BLENDING LIGHTS. 283 

And Hezekiah himself I shut up in Jerusalem, like a bird 
in a cage, building towers round the city to hem him in, and 
raising banks of earth against the gates to prevent escape. 
. . . Then, upon this Hezekiah, there fell the fear of the 
power of my arms, and he sent out to me the chiefs and 
the elders of Jerusalem with thirty talents of gold, and 
eight hundred talents of silver, and divers treasures, — a 
rich and immense booty. . . . All these things were 
brought to me at Nineveh, the seat of my government, 
Hezekiah having sent them by way of tribute, and as 
a token of submission to my power." 1 

The eight hundred talents as against the three hundred 
specified in the Bible include, obviously, all the silver which 
was obtained at first from every source, while the three 
hundred constituted the annual tribute. Is not the coin- 
cidence of these two descriptions very remarkable? The 
agreement of the Bible statement with the annals is still 
more striking when the passages in Isaiah are collated with 
those of the historical books. Of the above passage there 
is a slightly different translation by Dr. Hincks, in Layard's 
" Nineveh and Babylon," but substantially the agreement is 
such that the two may be held as one. 2 

Sennacherib undertook a second expedition to Jerusalem, 
and it would seem that in both he occupied Lachish, 3 and in 
either the one or the other a serious resistance to his arms 
was made, but in vain. Sennacherib triumphed, and in his 
annals there is an inscription confirmatory of his attack on 
Lachish, as it is stated in the Bible : " After this did Senna- 
cherib, king of Assyria, send his servants to Jerusalem (but 

1 "Ancient Monarchies," vol. III., pp. 161, 162. 

2 Layard's "Nineveh and Babylon," p. 143, 144. 

3 II. Kings xxiii. 14, 17, and xix. 3; and Isaiah xxix. 1-8, and xxiv, 



284 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIII. 

he himself laid siege against Lachish, and all his power with 
him), unto Hezekiah, king of Judah, and unto all Judah 
that were at Jerusalem/' &c. 1 In the Assyrian annals it is 
said — " Sennacherib, the mighty king, king of the country 
of Assyria, sitting on the throne of judgment, before the 
city Lachish (Lakkisha), I gave permission for its slaughter." 2 
In his expedition directed chiefly against Egypt, he was 
disastrously unsuccessful. He bent his arms towards 
Jerusalem, and "was purposed to fight against" it, but 
Hezekiah made most vigorous preparations for its defence. 
In the nineteenth chapter of II. Kings, there is an almost 
matchless description of the arrogance, the pride, and the 
blasphemies of the Assyrian king and his representatives, 
which led to the profound heart-pleadings of Hezekiah with 
the God of Israel; and all this is followed by Isaiah's 
defiant scorn, and his prophetic denunciations of the 
Assyrian king and his hosts. " Therefore thus saith the 
Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come 
into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it 
with shield, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he 
came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into 
this city, saith the Lord. . . . And it came to pass 
that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote 
in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five 
thousand : and when they arose early in the morning, 
behold, they were all dead corpses. So Sennacherib king 
of Assyria, departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at 
Nineveh. And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in 
the house of Nisroch, his god, that Adrammelech and 
Sharezer, his sons, smote him with the sword, . . . and 
Esar-haddon, his son, reigned in his stead." To the very 

1 II. Chron. xxxii. 9 2 Layard's "Nineveh and Babylon," p. 152. 



CHAP. XIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 285 

letter in every particular has this striking statement been 
confirmed. 

How complete this overthrow of Sennacherib, when suc- 
cess seemed certain ! His plans were laid with skill, and 
prosecuted with energy. As Sethos, one of the native 
princes, was near with his army, Sennacherib had resolved 
to crush him before the great Ethiopian monarch, Tirhakah, 
could unite forces with him. " The two hosts," says Raw- 
linson, "lay down at night in their respective stations, — 
the Egyptians and their king full of anxious alarm ; Senna- 
cherib and his Assyrians proudly confident, intending on the 
morrow to advance to the combat and repeat the lesson 
taught at Raphia and Attaka. But no morrow was to break 
in on the great mass of those who took their rest in the 
tents of the Assyrians. The divine fiat had gone forth. In 

the night, as they slept, destruction fell on them A 

miracle like the destruction of the first-born had been wrought, 
but this time on the enemies of the Egyptians, who naturally 
ascribed their deliverance to the interposition of their own 
gods ; and seeing the enemy in confusion and retreat, 
pressed hastily after him, distressed his flying columns, and 
cut off his stragglers. The Assyrian king returned home to 
Nineveh, shorn of his glory, with the shattered remains of 
his great host, and cast that proud capital into a state of 
despair and grief, which the genius of an ^Eschylus might 
have rejoiced to depict, but which no less powerful pen 
could adequately portray." 1 

The Assyrian annals, as was the practice, take no notice 
of this fearful calamity ; but the Egyptian historians record 
the disaster : they account for it in their own way, and the 
priests informed Herodotus that Sethos erected a monument 

1 "Ancient Monarchies," vol. II., pp. 443, 444. 



286 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIII. 



in commemoration of the event, which they pointed out to 
him. It was the statue of a man, and bore the inscription, 
" Look on me, and learn to reverence the gods." 

The Bible historians,, of course, did not regard it as within 
their scope to record the subsequent wars and triumphs of 
Sennacherib. From other sources we hear of the conquests 
which he made ; and it is interesting to observe that, with 
all his recruited energies, he did not renew his attack on 
Jerusalem or Egypt \ he accepted the terrible warning which 
the Lord God of Israel had given him, and turned his energies 
to other achievements. The Bible relates, however, his sad 
and inglorious end by the hand of his own sons ; and, in so 
far as historical evidence goes, this account of his death has 
been confirmed. " The murder of Sennacherib," says Pro- 
fessor Rawlinson, " if it was, as perhaps it was, a judgment 
on the individual, was at least equally a judgment on the 
nation. When, in an absolute monarchy, the palace becomes 
the scene of the worst crimes, the doom of the kingdom is 
sealed ; it totters to its fall, and requires but a touch from 
without to collapse into a heap of ruins." x 

Esar-haddon, the son of Sennacherib, was his successor, 1 
and carried on several extensive campaigns, but in only one 
important particular does his history touch Bible history. 
He was the contemporary of Manasseh, king of Judah ; and 
being displeased with his disaffection or revolt, he sent the 
captains of his host, who took Manasseh " among the thorns, 
and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon." 2 
Treated severely, his affliction led him to penitence, to 
humbling himself before God, and subsequently to his restoral 
to his throne by Esar-haddon, on condition of subjection. 

Esar-haddon, it is to be borne in mind, was the first of 



1 II. Kings xix. 37. 2 II. Chron. xxxiii. 11. 



1 



CHAP. XIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 287 

the Assyrian line who was king of Babylon as well as of 
Assyria. Sargon took the title of both, but Esar-haddon 
had built there a palace for himself, in which, no doubt, he 
would sometimes reside. 1 It is to Babylon he was brought, 
and not to Nineveh, as was the custom. This is the first 
Assyrian king with whom such a destination for any prisoner 
was possible. Is it not very singular to find that Manasseh 
is said to have been brought to Babylon, and can any degree 
of exactness more completely testify to the truth of the 
Bible ? As soon as the king is resident in Babylon, the 
Bible tells us that thither the captive was brought. 

That Manasseh was made his prisoner cannot be doubted ; 
the annals of Esar-haddon attest the fact. In the inscription 
bearing on the capture of prisoners, it is said, — " I count 
amongst the prisoners of my reign twelve kings of the 
Hittites, who dwelt beyond the mountains, — Bahlon, king 
of Tyre, Manasseh, king of Judah, together with the kings 
of the Isles of the Mediterranean Sea." 2 A more explicit 
statement cannot be desired. 

As it would occupy greatly more space than the limits of 
this work admit, to follow closely the series of incidental 
testimonies which the prophetic writings contain, a few brief 
notices may suffice to complete this general argument. 

While the children of Israel were pining in captivity by 
" Babel's streams," and had apparently closed their history, 
they are not only preserved by God as a separate people, 
but distinguished by the steady light which the character of 
Daniel sheds on them. Though in captivity, they are 
brought to the foreground, and their history rises in import- 



1 "Ancient Monarchies," vol. II., p. 196; 2nd ed. 
2 "Revue Archeologique," 1864. Quoted by the Rev. B. R. Savile 
in "The Truth of the Bible," p. 289. 



288 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIII. 

ance above that even of their conquerors. Nebuchadnezzar, 
king of Babylon, is made all the more conspicuous by his 
relations to the prophet Daniel and his people. The 
mutual relations of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar are so well 
known, that it is needless to refer to them minutely; but 
there are several coincidences which are too striking to be 
omitted. Nebuchadnezzar contributed so much to the ex- 
tension and adornment of the city that, naturally, as recorded 
in Scripture, " he walked in the palace of the kingdom of 
Babylon," and said, " Is not this great Babylon that I have 
built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my 
power, and for the honour of my majesty?" In the clear 
" Standard Inscription of Nebuchadnezzar," his account of 
what he did is in every sense only an amplification of the 
above brief announcement, — " The double enclosure which 
Nabopolassar, my father, had made, but not completed, I 
finished. . . . The great double wall of Babylon / 
finished. . . . I strengthened the city. . . . Across 
the river to the west / built the wall of Babylon with 
brick. . . . The reservoir of Babylon, by the grace of 
Merodach, / filled completely full of water. . . . I made 
the way of IVana, the protectress of her votaries. . . . These 
gates / raised. . . . For the delight of mankind, / 
filled the reservoir. Behold ! besides the Ligur-Bel, the 
impregnable fortification of Babylon, / constructed inside 
Babylon, on the eastern side of the river, a fortification such 
as no king had ever made before me, viz., a long rampart, 
4000 ammas square, as an extra defence. / excavated the 
ditch ; with brick and mortar / bound its bed ; a long 
rampart at its head / strongly built. / adorned its gates. 
The folding doors and pillars / plated with copper," * and 

1 "Ancient Monarchies," vol. III., p. 524 ; 2nd edition. 



CHAP. XIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 289 

so on. Can any historical light more vividly reveal the 
accuracy of the photograph of Nebuchadnezzar as it is set 
in the Book of Daniel ? 

Sir Henry Rawlinson has borne important testimony to 
the reality of Nebuchadnezzar's influence and his extensive 
improvements, when he said — " I have examined the bricks 
in sitit, belonging, perhaps, to a hundred towns and cities in 
the neighbourhood of Bagdad, and I have never yet found 
any other legend than that of Nebuchadnezzar, son of 
Nabopolassar, king of Babylon.'' 

In the same inscription there is a passage in winch it is 
believed there is an allusion to the calamity which Daniel 
has described as befalling Nebuchadnezzar, when he was 
driven from the haunts of men until " seven times " should 
pass over him, and he should acknowledge God; but as 
difference of opinion has, of late, been shown regarding it, 
we shall quote the passage merely as Sir Henry Rawlinson 
rendered it, in the hope that his translation may yet be fully 
verified, and that the remark of Professor Rawlinson in his 
"Bampton Lectures" may be vindicated, that "the whole 
range of cuneiform literature presents no similar instance of 
a king putting on record his own inaction," notwithstanding 
his having withheld this conclusion as now doubtful, in both 
his "Ancient Monarchies " and his " Historical Illustrations 
of the Old Testament." " For four years . . . the 
seat of my kingdom in the city, which . . . did not 
rejoice my heart. In all my dominions I did not build 
a high place of power; the precious treasures of my 
kingdom I did not lay up. In Babylon, buildings for 
myself and for the honour of my kingdom I did not lay 
out. In the worship of Merodach, my lord, the joy of 
my heart, in Babylon, the city of his sovereignty and 
the seat of my empire, I did not sing his praises, I did 

v 



290 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIII. 

not furnish his altars with victims, nor did I clear out the 
canals." 

The blanks at the beginning represent words which have 
baffled the deciphering skill of Sir Henry, but obviously, if 
its meaning has been rightly apprehended, the whole passage 
exhibits a complete revolution in the life of Nebuchadnezzar, 
and is in striking contrast with the energetic action exhibited 
in the first part of the inscription, which we quoted. 

The " seven times," mentioned by Daniel, does not 
necessarily mean seven years, and accordingly an explana- 
tion to the following effect has been offered. It was common 
in Persia and Chaldaea to divide the year into two seasons 
only, summer and winter, and thus we have three and a half 
solar years, which would, in the main, correspond with the 
seven times, or three and a half years. But as critical diffi- 
culties, in the meantime, lie in the way of accepting this 
view of the inscription, we do not press it, because it is 
most undesirable where there is so much that is thoroughly 
definite, to weaken our argument by introducing what is 
doubtful. We give the opponents of the Bible the benefit 
of the doubt, and we merely submit the probable rendering 
of the passage, because it is not inappropriate to evidence 
from other sources bearing on the same great fact of 
Nebuchadnezzar's temporary seclusion. The reign of a 
queen is placed in this period by some historians, and it is 
not in the least improbable that she conducted public affairs 
while Nebuchadnezzar was temporarily unfit to take any 
interest in them. It is also distinctly intimated that he 
" feU into a state of infirm health " some time before his 
decease; and Professor Rawlinson has quoted from Aby- 
denus a remarkable passage, * containing an account of the 

1 "Historical Illustrations," pp. 168, 169. 



CHAP. XIII.] BLEEDING LIGHTS, 29I 

last words and the death of Nebuchadnezzar, which he 
regards as of importance in connecting the commencement 
of Nebuchadnezzar's malady, not only with the roof of the 
palace, as it is implied in Daniel iv. 29, but with his dis- 
appearance from among men, and with such prophetic power 
as was mysteriously imparted to him, according to the 
account by Daniel. 

In the scripture narrative of the sudden destruction of the 
Babylonian kingdom, there were two minute statements 
against which rationalistic writers long urged strong objec- 
tions, and on which they rested demands for the rejection 
of the book of Daniel as " full of historical errors ;" and the 
result reminds us of what has often happened in supposed 
contradictions of the Bible by facts in natural science. The 
first statement which was sneered at as erroneous, is that 
which describes Belshazzar as king of Babylon; and the 
second, is that which intimates that Daniel was to receive 
the reward of being made third instead of second in the 
kingdom, in accordance with custom. 

The objections pressed against DaniePs statement that 
Belshazzar was king, had apparently such weight, that Bible 
students were long greatly perplexed. Some of the ancient 
historians, as Herodotus and Berosus, to whose opinions 
deserved deference has always been paid, have stated that 
not Belshazzar, but Nabonnedus 1 (or Labynetus), was king of 
Babylon when it was taken by the Medo-Persians — that this 
Nabonnedus was not in the city Babylon when it was over- 
thrown — that he was not slain — that he was taken prisoner 
in a contest outside the city, and was generously treated by 
Cyrus. To meet these statements, there was no answer 
beyond that which faith in the accuracy of the Bible sug- 

1 Or Nabonidus, or Nabonadius. 



292 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIII. 

gested. But a most interesting discovery of clay cylinders 
by Mr. Taylor, when he was making excavations in Ur of 
the Chaldees under the superintendence of Sir H. Rawlinson, 
has put an end to the cavils of the sceptic and the difficulties 
of the Christian. The cylinders bear inscriptions which Sir 
Henry, to his delight, has found to contain an account of the 
reign of this very Nabonnedus, a discovery of the utmost 
importance for the illustration of Scripture. " The most 
important facts, however, which they disclose," says Sir 
Henry, in a most instructive letter in the " Athenaeum," "is 
that the eldest son of Nabonidus was named Bel-shar-ezar, 
and that he was admitted by his father to a share in the 
government. This name is undoubtedly the Belshazzar of 
Daniel, and thus furnishes a key to the explanation of 
that great historical problem which has hitherto defied 
solution. We can now understand how Belshazzar, as joint 
king with his father, may have been governor of Babylon 
when the city was attacked by the combined forces of the 
Medes and Persians, and may have perished in the assault 
which followed ; while Nabonnedus, leading a force to the 
relief of the place, was defeated and obliged to take refuge 
in the neighbouring town of Borsippa (or Birs-i-Nimrud), 
capitulating after a short resistance, and being subsequently 
assigned, according to Berosus, an honourable retirement in 
Carmania. By the discovery, indeed, of the name Bel-shar- 
ezar, as appertaining to the son of Nabonnedus, we are for the 
first time enabled to reconcile authentic history (such as it is 
related by Herodotus and Berosus, and not as we find it in 
the romances of Xenophon or the fables of Ctesias,) with 
the^inspired record of Daniel, which forms one of the bul- 
warks of our religion." 1 

1 "Athenaeum," 1854, p, 341. 



CHAP. XIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 293 

In further sketching the memorials of the latter kings, Sir 
Henry says that of " Nabonidus they were finding relics in 
all quarters." " The walls of Babylon on the river face, 
erected by this king, were completely exposed during a late 
fall of the river, and the bricks of which the wall was com- 
posed were found to be uniformly stamped with his name 
and titles." The evidence of the father's reign and influence 
is complete, and the incidental testimony to Belshazzar 
being co-regent, in addition to the direct statement by the 
father in his annals, is such that it cannot be set aside. A 
co-regency was not uncommon; Nabopolassar shared his 
government with his son Nebuchadnezzar, Xerxes with his 
son Artaxerxes, and Augustus with Tiberius. 

We thus find that there were two kings, father and son, 
associated in the rule of the kingdom \ and that Nabonnedus 
(Nabonidus) was not in the city, but in its neighbourhood 
defending it, while Belshazzar was within the city, as Daniel 
has written, and perished in its ruins. 

This record has not only removed the difficulty as to 
Nabonnedus being king and not Belshazzar, but it has dis- 
posed of the objections which have been raised in reference 
to Daniel having been assigned the third place instead of the 
second. Belshazzar offered the third place to any interpreter 
of the hand-writing on the wall, because he could not offer 
the second, for the very reason which has at last been ascer- 
tained through the discovered inscription, that he was him- 
self second, his father Nabonnedus being first. Is not this 
another striking testimony to the exactness of the sacred 
record ? That which was long a stumbling-block to ignor- 
ance, has, in the light of recent discoveries, proved a source 
of strength to the Bible student, and it carries with it an 
emphatic warning against hasty conclusions unfavourable to 
the Word of God. The seeming historical inaccuracies in 



294 BLENDING LIGHTS. [chap. XIII. 

Daniel, of which some German critics have complained so 
loudly, have been turned into an impregnable defence of its 
claims to a reliableness which, in even minute details, no 
other ancient history can profess and establish. 

When we move along the line of Jewish history after the 
time of Daniel, we have Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther detail- 
ing events which extend over rather more than a hundred 
years beyond the return from the Babylonish captivity. 
A new empire spreads out before us. Cyrus, Ahasuerus, 
Artaxerxes, Darius, Artaxerxes, pass in succession through 
changes which have an important bearing on the destiny of 
Jews. Not only in the general but in the minuter statements 
of both the sacred and the secular historians of this period, 
are there very striking coincidences ; and those illustrious 
rulers to whom we have referred have, in their histories, 
touched Jewish interests in so many points, that, for rational- 
ists, nothing should be easier than the detection and exposure 
of errors, if any did exist ; but in this their failure has been 
complete, and they have been forced to accept, in many 
instances, as true what they once denounced or ridiculed 
as false. 

That some difficulties remain we admit; but they are 
comparatively insignificant, and the preponderance of exactly 
corresponding records is such as to render the historical 
argument unanswerable. Testimonies have been unexpec- 
tedly forthcoming to vindicate the Scriptures along the 
whole line of their history, whenever and wherever doubts 
have been raised and assaults made. 

From the earliest announcements regarding the Deluge, 
Noah and his sons, and Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees or 
Egypt, down through all vicissitudes to the very close of the 
Old Testament history, fuller light is being shed on every 
other record when it comes into contact with the Bible; 



CHAP. XIII.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 295 

and much that would have otherwise remained obscure, has 
thus been made definite and intelligible. To the general 
historian, the Bible is proving of priceless value ; and some 
of those who have most indulged in sneers at seeming in- 
accuracies, have been constrained to confess their error, and 
to pay to its authority a not ungenerous homage. 

In the rapid progress of archceological discoveries in the 
East, there is everything to warrant the anticipation of Sir 
Henry Rawlinson, that scholars will soon be able so to 
classify both the Chaldaean and Assyrian kings, and so to 
spread out their annals, that " they shall have an historical 
tableau of Western Asia, ascending to the twentieth century 
B.C., or anterior to the exodus of Abraham from Chaldsea, 
far more determinate and continuous than has been obtained 
for the sister kingdom," 1 Egypt. The recent labours of Mr. 
G. Smith add interest and emphasis to this expectation ; and 
is it not marvellous to find the Bible, in its earliest and in its 
latest historical intimations, shining with increasing splendour 
as archaeologists and historians translate conjecture into Fact, 
and displace myths by universally acknowledged realities ? 

1 "Athenaeum," 1854, p. 343. 






CHAPTER XIV. 

Bible History in relation to Prophecy — The Evidence of Pro- 
phecy — The Idea of the Supernatural Inseparable from it. 

1 ' History is the occasion of prophecy, but not its measure ; for pro- 
phecy rises above history, borne aloft by its wings, which carry it far 
beyond the present, and which it derives, not from the past occurrences 
of which history takes cognisance, but from Him to whom the future 
and the past are alike known. It is the communication of so much of 
His own supernatural light, as he sees fit to let down upon the dark 
movements of history, to show whither they are going." — Principal 
Fairbairn. 

ALTHOUGH we have hitherto examined the Bible and 
other ancient histories in precisely the same way, we 
cannot leave them as if no marked differences appeared. Our 
work is but half finished. No one can carefully study the 
Bible for its historical information alone, without discovering 
that its History has at times assumed an entirely distinctive 
character. It anticipates the future. Prophecy becomes 
History, as the mystery of prediction passes into the light of 
fulfilment. History records Prophecies before their accom- 
plishment ; traces the progress of events \ and, at last, sepa- 
rates such as have been indisputably fulfilled from those 
which have not. Prophecy and History thus act and re- 
act on each other, — they are inseparable, — they blend as 
lights. 

I. Bible History in Relation to Prophecy. 

While Prophecy embraces two departments, the moral or 
doctrinal and the predictive, it is with the latter we have at 
present to do chiefly, and with that only in its specially dis- 



CHAP. XIV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 297 

tinctive character. Some exalt the one and depreciate the 
other ; but both have their value. Comprehensively, Pro- 
phecy includes all those truths, or secrets, which men could 
not, in the circumstances of their age, ascertain by their 
own unaided energies. It was the privilege of those who 
were appointed by the Great Revealer, to proclaim them, 
whether the truths unfolded had reference to the past, the 
present, or the future, or to all combined j and, be the form 
or substance what it may, it was still a revelation. If we even 
restrict our view of Prophecy to the moral alone, as funda- 
mental, we discover so much that is distinctive, that the Bible 
cannot be classed with other histories. The laws of God, 
His dominion, His providence, His majesty, His holiness, 
justice, and mercy; man's obligation of obedience to Him, 
and his duties to his fellow-men, are all set forth with a 
brilliancy and an authoritativeness which are elsewhere un- 
equalled. So thickly are the pages of Prophecy strewn with 
the original principles of morality and religion, 1 that no 
unprejudiced student can fail to be arrested by them. 

And if we adopt the view in which Prophecy is regarded 
as merely predictive of events which could not possibly have 
been foreknown by any science or wisdom of man, but which 
must have been revealed by the Omniscient Ruler, there is 
that which is so singular that it raises the Bible above all the 
ordinary histories by which it has ever been tested. 

As the older Prophets, one after another, traverse the 
sphere of Bible History, the observant student recognises in 
each an accredited " Man of God." Their messages, their 
looks, their tones, are so singular that they cannot be classed 
with even the greatest actors in the world-histories. Their 
place and their function are peculiarly their own. In their 

1 V Davison on Prophecy," p. 28 ; 1870. 



298 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIV. 

fervent unselfishness, in their lofty aspirations, in their intui- 
tional insight, they are peerless. In following their foot- 
steps, the student realises an ennobling companionship, and 
cherishes impressions which were hitherto unknown to him. 

Although there are exceptions to this general statement, 
in such instances as those of Balaam and Caiaphas, — the 
one an uf twilling, and the other an unconscious, instrument, 1 — 
and although it must be slightly modified to meet such a 
faltering of faith, and love, and submissiveness as Jonah 
temporarily exhibited, or such selfishness and hardihood 
as the old prophet at Bethel showed, they only the more 
strikingly manifest the general rule of the Divine procedure 
as in harmony with the sovereignty of the Divine purpose. 
The greatness of the prophets of the Old as well as of the 
New Testament is distinctly visible, not so much in their 
unfolding present truth and instructing the people, as in their 
insight of the distant future, regarded as an evolution from 
the present. 

The truths revealed, and the spirit of the revealers, sepa- 
rate J;he prophets from all other men. Their oracles are a 
phenomenon which cannot be overlooked. They are alone, 
they arrest attention, and educe a feeling of awe. The two- 
fold function of prophecy, while it pervades Bible history, and 
unites all its parts so as to constitute an organic whole, is 
itself an evidence of the truth of the Bible, which encourages 
the believer to rest with confidence in the controlling wisdom 
and power of God. Our Lord himself hath said, " Now I 
tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may 
believe that I am he." — John xiii. 19. 

The apparent vagueness of some of the prophecies is no 
valid reason for rejecting them. While some are confessedly 

1 "Fairbaim on Prophecy," p. 499; 2nd edition. 



CHAP. XIV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 299 

difficult of interpretation, there is a necessity for vagueness, 
because the definite revelation of future events would arrest 
the activity and mar the peace of nations or communities j 
and their approach, therefore, is so enveloped in allegory, 
that the accomplishment of the prophecy becomes its clearest 
and most satisfactory exposition. " Prophecy must thus, in 
many instances, have that darkness which is impenetrable 
at first, as well as that light which shall completely dispel 
every doubt at last; and as it cannot be an evidence of 
Christianity until the event demonstrate its own truth, it may 
remain obscure till history become its interpreter, and not be 
perfectly obvious till the fulfilment of the whole series with 
which it is connected." x But with the obscure prophecies 
it is unnecessary here to occupy time, while so much that is 
indisputable is at hand. Let it be understood, however, 
that while some are detached from the others for the pur- 
poses of our general argument, all the prophecies are to be 
held related to one another ; they converge to one centre, 
Christ, and they spread from this centre, oivtwards, over his 
extending kingdom, until it is completely encircled. It will 
be enough to place together, by way of illustration, two or 
three prominent examples of fulfilled prophecy, as indicating 
a line of proof which, to many minds in all ages of the 
Church, has been as a fountain of water in a withering 
wilderness. 

II. The Evidence of Prophecy. 

Sacred History and Prophecy, blending at the very com- 
mencement of Revelation, still continue to illustrate the 
principles of the Divine Government. The words of the 
Great Ruler, spoken after the fall of our first parents, are 
distinctly explanatory of the misery in the world, and of the 

1 "Evidence of Prophecy," by the Rev. Dr. Keith, p. 7. 1868. 



300 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIV. 

happiness in the Church. " And I will put enmity between 
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed ; 
it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto 
the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and 
thy conception ; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children ; 
and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over 
thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened 
unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of 
which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it : 
cursed is the ground for thy sake ; in sorrow shalt thou eat 
of it all the days of thy life." 1 

In this brief statement is the germ of all history. Every 
Messianic prophecy is traceable to it j and in it are the 
secrets of human sorrow and Christian joy. In its light we 
can more easily comprehend the universal social and moral 
turmoil, the struggles for salvation, the triumphs of holiness, 
and the certainty of victory when "the head" of the serpent 
is bruised, and the evil principle has become powerless, by 
which man was seduced to his fall. No sooner had man 
lost the high position assigned him, and passed into the 
gloom of condemnation, than the first prediction beamed in 
mercy upon him. Its light is the dawn and dayspring of 
Prophecy, showing that " Man was not excluded from 
Paradise till Prophecy had sent him forth with some pledge 
and hope of consolation. - 

Within this wide view may be collected all the prophecies 
of the Old Testament ; and there is not a subordinate pre- 
diction which does not find its meaning and vindication in 
this briefly unfolded plan of redemption. While the whole 
body of ancient Prophecy is intimately related to the way of 
salvation ; and while, with history as its channel, it seems to 

1 Genesis iii. 15-17. 2 "Davison on Prophecy," p. 53. 



CHAP. XIV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 3 01 

end in the crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, 
it reappears in the extension of Christianity, and in its pros- 
pects of illimitable blessedness. 

After this two-fold sentence of condemnation and of pro- 
mise, Prophecy appears in two distinct forms, the one pre- 
diction in words, and the other prediction in actions ; it often 
sets forth the same truths, now verbally and now in types. 
While they are mutually illustrative, and while there is abun- 
dant evidence of supernatural influence, it will be sufficient 
to limit this part of the argument to two or three of those 
more comprehensive prophecies whose fulfilment history is 
still exhibiting with a breadth and distinctness which cannot 
be either ignored or despised. 

i. The first comprehensive and far-reaching prophecy after 
the flood, comes to us in the words of Noah, "And he said, 
Cursed be Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he be unto 
his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of 
Shem ; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge 
Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem ; and 
Canaan shall be his servant." — Genesis ix. 25-27. 

For more than three thousand years this prophecy has 
been historically tested and verified. The rebuke that fell 
on Canaan, still rests on his race ; and the blessings promised 
to Shem and Japheth, are still spreading among their de- 
scendants. 

The sacred historical delineation of each family descend- 
ing from Noah, and of their different settlements, affords to 
us the means of ascertaining whether this prophecy is hold- 
ing good or not. 

Japheth and his descendants had, for their territory, 
Europe, or the countries beyond the Mediterranean. " By 
these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands ; 
every one after his tongue, after their families, in their 



302 BLENDING LIGHTS. [chap. XIV. 



nations." 1 The descendants of Ham had Africa and the 
south-west of Asia for their portion. "And the sons of 
Ham ; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan. . . . 
and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread 
abroad. And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon." 2 
Tyre, and Carthage also, whose position in ancient history 
was so distinguished, were their cities. The sons of Shem 
and their families had their home in the East. "And their 
dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar, a 
mount of the East." 3 The respective territories of Japheth, 
Ham, and Shem, are distinctly outlined ; and while very 
many changes have passed over their separate " families," 
or divisions of the human race, these old distinctions remain 
as deep as ever. Although cursory readers regard this tenth 
chapter as valueless, it is the most remarkable historical 
document in existence ; remarkable, because associated with 
facts in the past which have been established, and with facts 
in the future which could only be known to one supernatur- 
ally instructed. No page of history can be made parallel 
with it. The records of succeeding centuries confirm it, and 
the present condition of the world is its commentary. The 
descendants of Ham, in Africa, are "the servant of servants," 
although, at the beginning of their history, they had a glor- 
ious career in Asia, with Babylon as their centre; and another 
triumphant career when the Carthaginians, with Hannibal as 
leader, almost made Rome and Europe their servant. Simi- 
larly, at the close of their history, or near it, grander triumphs, 
because moral and spiritual, may give lustre to their history, 
when they own the Saviour's sway, and are, with Japheth 
and Shem, " the servants " of the Lord alone. 

Now, is not Japheth "enlarged" everywhere by extending 

1 Genesis x. 5, 2 Ibid, x. 6, 18, 19. 3 Ibid, x. 30. 



chap, xiv.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 3°3 

intellectual and political influence? Does not every 
emigrant vessel from Europe, as it carries to distant lands 
the foundation of new colonies, fulfil and establish this olden 
prophecy? And are not the advances of Britain in India 
on the one side, and of Russia on the other, the fulfilment, 
in even a literal sense, of the declaration that Japheth " shall 
dwell in the tents of Shem"? "What simile, drawn from the 
simplicity of primeval ages, could be more strikingly graphic 
of the numerous and extensive European colonies in Asia ? 
And how much have the posterity of Japheth been enlarged 
within the regions of the posterity of Shem ? In how many 
of their ancient cities do they dwell ? How many settle- 
ments have they established? while there is not a single 
spot in Europe the colony or the property of any of the 
nations whom the Scriptures represent as descended from 
Shem, or who inhabit any part of that quarter of the world 
which they possessed. And it may be said in reference to 
our own island, and to the immense extent of the British 
Asiatic dominions, that the nations of the isles of the Gentiles 
dwell in the tents of the East I From whence, then, could 
such a prophecy have emanated, but from inspiration by 
Him whose presence and whose prescience are alike un- 
limited by space or by time." 1 

2. There are prophecies which require historical conditions 
for their fulfilment, so opposite that they cannot possibly be 
reduced within the sphere of the merely natural, and to 
some of these alone we shall restrict our proof. The follow- 
ing tests are not only applicable to them, but separate them 
from all that the most keen-sighted sagacity could predict, — 
"That the prediction be known to have been promulgated 
before the event ; that the event in question be such as could 

1 "The Evidence of Prophecy," by Dr. Keith, p. 523. 



304 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIV. 

not have been foreseen, at the time when it was predicted, 
by any effort of human reason ; and that the event and pre- 
diction correspond together in a clear and adequate accom- 
plishment." 1 It may be sufficient for our argument to 
restrict ourselves to those prophecies which have reference 
to three nations whose histories are so singular, and to three 
cities whose overthrow and destruction were brought about 
by means so diverse, that they cannot possibly be explained 
by any natural prescience, however vivid. 

Two of the earliest and less general prophecies, — the one 
referring to the Ishmaelites, the other to the Israelites, — are, 
in their fulfilment, so diverse, that no unaided human being 
could have even planned such a future as in the least degree 

probable. 

i. The prediction regarding Ishmael is remarkably clear 
and intelligible. "And thou shalt bear a son, and shalt 
call his name Ishmael. . . . And he will be a wild 
man ; his hand will be against every man, and every man's 
hand against him ; and he shall dwell in the presence of all 
his brethren. . . . Twelve princes shall he beget, and 
I will make him a great nation." 2 

It may be objected that this prophecy was not promul- 
gated till the time of Moses ; but taking the facts as they 
lie before us since that distant time, they constitute strongly 
presumptive evidence that the prophecy was uttered before 
Ishmael's birth, and was preserved in the traditions and 
writings of the people, until Moses gave it a permanent 
place in the Scripture record. 

This prophecy has, in every particular, proved true ; it has 
photographed a national character which, for more than three 
thousand years, has continued unchanged. 

1 "Davison on Prophecy," p. 348. 2 Genesis xvi. 12 ; xvii. 20. 



I 



CHAP. XIV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 3°S 

In all ages, historians have described the Bedouin Arab 
as a " wild man " or wild ^n-man \ as roving, predatory, 
engaged in ceaseless feuds with his neighbours, reckless of 
the milder restraints of civilisation, and setting at defiance 
those international laws which regulate the intercourse of 
surrounding nations. The Ishmaelites or Arabians have 
ever held fast by the same country. Anchored in one 
land, they have swung over surrounding communities, only 
to settle, at last, in their own appointed territory, and to 
retain precisely the same characteristics. The " wildness," 
which in other tribes and nations has been first softened, 
then effaced, has, in their features, never been even lessened 
by the lapse of ages. Not dispersed by conquest, nor 
wasted by migration, they dwell still " in the presence of all 
their brethren," a strange national spectacle, utterly inexpli- 
cable by those laws which regulate other races. Comparatively 
fugitive and unstable as are the general characteristics of 
nations while the influences of centuries sweep over them as 
tidal waves on the shore, the Ishmaelites remain the same 
as when this strangely-expressed prophecy was first uttered 
by the angel of the Lord. 

The more powerful national influences, the attractions of 
fairer lands, and the luxury of indolent races, utterly failed 
to change, in the least, their characteristic features, during 
that splendid period when their empire extended .rom the 
borders of India to the Atlantic. Through all, they stood 
forth a perpetual representation of the the facts predicted in 
their history, and their present condition harmonises with 
that of many ages ago. 

2. In contrast with this prophecy, there are those which 
delineate the marvellous future of the Jews with such depth 
and distinctness that they arrest the most careless reader. 
Moses foretold their future when their prospect was 

w 



306 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIV. / 

brightened by the increasing light of fulfilled promises, as 
they neared the land of Canaan. Their history, at the 
present day, cannot be written in more truthful and striking ( 
terms than in those which Moses used three thousand years 
ago, — " I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw 
out a sword after you; and your land shall be desolate, and j 
your cities waste. . . . And upon them that are left 
alive of you, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the 
lands of their enemies ; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall 
chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; 
and they shall fall when none pursueth. . . . And ye 
shall have no power to stand before your enemies. . . . And 
yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, 
I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to 
destroy them utterly." 1 " The Lord shall bring thee, and 
thy king, which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation 
which neither thou nor thy fathers have known. . . . 
And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and 
a by-word among all nations. . . . And the Lord shall 
scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the 
earth even unto the other." 2 Long afterwards, the prophets 
wrote in the same strain. " I will cause them to be removed 
into all kingdoms of the earth. ... I will cast you out 
into a land that ye know not." 3 "For, lo, I will com- 
mand, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, 
like as com is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain 
fall upon the earth." 4 

These are merely examples of many predictions which 
might be quoted ; they have the clearness of history, and 
they have now the emphasis of a fulfilment which is 

1 Leviticus xxvi. 33, 36, 37, 44. 2 Deuteronomy xxviii. 36, 37, 64. 
3 Jeremiah xv. 4, xvi. 13. 4 Amos ix. 9. 



CHAP. XIV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 307 

mysterious in its antecedent process, but clear as noonday 
in its results. By the laws of amalgamation or extinction, 
we can account for the changes which appear in the smaller 
as well as vaster nations of the world ; we can trace the 
causes by which Hungary and Poland have been prostrated, 
and by which Russia is still rising and extending in her 
colossal strength ; we can see in the ruin of France, in the 
triumph of Prussia, and the gradual collapse of the Turkish 
Empire, various forces at work which have often reappeared 
in history j we can trace in the slow amalgamation of races 
in America, and in the rapid disappearance of Indian tribes, 
laws definite almost as those which regulate the planetary 
system ; we have a sound philosophy of history, whose great 
aim is not the mere aggregate of many facts, but the exposi- 
tion of their causes, and we are satisfied with the conclusions 
which have been reached ; but in the Israelites we have a 
people which baffle historical adjustment, and whose 
characteristics are not reducible within any commonly- 
recognised classification. They remain a marvellous isol- 
ation. In Britain, the distinctions of Norman and Celt 
and Saxon are fast disappearing ; but the Jews are every- 
where "scattered," and yet everywhere retain not only 
their physical features, but their intellectual, moral, and 
religious conformation. Apart from the Bible, unaided 
reason has failed to solve the problem of a people scattered 
and down-trodden by the nations for nearly two thousand 
years, yet universally preserved. 

What a terrible past has been theirs ! What a mysterious 
present ! " Plucked from off their own land," and " smitten 
before their enemies," they yet survive, not obscurely, but 
with historical lustre, as in a mirror's scattered fragments, 
and with a prominence which the world owns. Adrian 
made it death to the Jew to set his foot amid the ruins of 



3°8 BLENDING LIGHTS, [CHAP. XIV. 

Jerusalem ; Justinian abolished the synagogues ; Mahomet 
sought the destruction of every Jew ; the Church of Rome 
has done her best for their extirpation, and . has failed ; the 
thunders of her excommunication have rolled over every 
land which her influence could reach; "the Jews" were 
everywhere the objects of popular insult, of almost intolerable 
oppression, and frequently of a general massacre. No 
mode of cruelty was deemed unjustifiable. Again and 
again were they banished from France ; they were driven 
from Spain; England, during the Crusades, gathered her 
forces to destroy them ; the barons, to win popular favour 
during their struggle with Henry III., slaughtered seven 
hundred of them, and plundered their houses ; Edward I. 
seized all their property, and drove them in misery from the 
kingdom, and four hundred dreary years elapsed ere they 
ventured to return. There is no history which is not 
darkened by their wrongs, and there is none unstained by 
their blood. Most fearful has been the fulfilment of the 
prophecies that they shall be a <( proverb," an " astonish- 
ment," a " by-word," a " taunt," and a " hissing among all 
nations." x The Jew is, at this moment, a wanderer in every 
land, with a home in none. In no country is he unknown, 
from Norway to Japan, from Spain to Southern Africa ; and 
no social grade in the East or the West is without his 
presence. In Shiraz, as Dr. Wolf has told us, young men, old 
men, and women, sit on the streets begging. With head bowed 
down, and hand stretched out, they cry piteously to the 
stranger, — " Only one penny, only one penny, I am a poor 
Israelite, I am a poor Israelite." " I wonder not," he adds, 
" that their harp is mute." From that sunken state in the 



1 See "Keith on the Evidence of Prophecy," and Hallam's History, 
vol. I, 



CHAP. XIV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 309 

East, and from similar obscurity and apparent helplessness in 
every one of our great cities, they rise through every social 
stage, until they sit honoured amid the proudest. In London, 
Paris, Vienna, and Berlin, they are the money-holders of 
Europe, deciding the questions of peace and war, and giving 
impulse or restraint to the commerce of the world. Although 
inwrought with the whole fabric of society, they are yet not 
of it; they are truly a " peculiar people," resisting almost 
all those social, intellectual, and moral agencies by which 
communities are changed. 

Their preservation seems all the more astonishing when 
we remember that locality was part of their religious system. 
Jerusalem was essential to it. The Christian may build his 
church, or the Pagan his temple, wherever he pleases j but 
the Jew may build his nowhere save in the Holy City. 
Thus, their religion was localised; but they still cleave to 
the past, and still look wistfully yet with brightening hope 
to the future. For more than sixty generations have they 
thus mingled with the Gentile races, yet they have kept 
aloof, they have eaten the passover, and have been sandalled 
for the expected fulfilment of many prophecies. How 
account for these strange facts? How explain the move- 
ments of Jewish history? The philosophy of history has 
hitherto failed. The condition of this mysterious people 
has proved inexplicable by any of the ordinary laws of 
human history. By the Scriptures alone we are guided to 
the right solution. The Jews are dispersed, but not de- 
stroyed; because the Lord of Glory, by whom they have 
been condemned, has purposes yet unfulfilled. But how 
explain the fact, except by admitting the supernatural? 
That these conditions have been actually foretold so many 
centuries before, cannot be disputed, for the prophecies have 
a place in the oldest writings in the world. Similarly dark 



3IO BLENDING LIGHTS. [chap/xiv. 

sayings have been spoken in succeeding ages. Results, un- 
imaginable by human wisdom, have been boldly predicted, 
and they have appeared mysteriously in the manner antici- 
pated. As the human mind often vacillates regarding even 
the nearest events and their issues, is it in the least degree 
probable that it could have ever so penetrated the secrets of 
time as accurately to anticipate Jewish history ? Is there 
not fullest evidence in all that bears upon the condition of 
the Jews, that a higher knowledge than man's has been 
making their future known ? The prophetic record is not 
made up of random conjectures or gloomy forebodings. 
" There is not only foresight, but foresight of a most 
impartial and discriminating kind, capable alike of descrying 
the darker and the brighter aspects of the future ; dwelling 
even with painful emphasis on the coming evil, and reiter- 
ating it, yet without ever losing sight of the coming good ; 
and even when the clouds of present trouble gathered 
thickest, only proceeding with a clearer eye and a more 
assured step to reveal the glorious and blessed future that 
lay beyond. Most remarkably have both parts of the pro- 
spective outline been fulfilled." 1 It " seems undeniable 
that most striking fulfilments have taken place of what no 
merely human eye could have foreseen, nor the shrewdest 
intellect anticipated." 2 And we reassert that the argument 
has all the greater weight, when we contrast the future of 
Ishmael with the future of Israel, and the dissimilar agencies 
by which their destiny has hitherto been determined. 
Ishmael still localised in Arabia, and Israel dispersed over 
the whole world, are separate yet stedfast witnesses of a 
ruling hand behind their extraordinary histories. 

3. Older than the Ishmaelites and the Israelites, civilised 

1 "Fairbairn on Prophecy," p. 222. s Ibid, p, 223, 



CHAP, xiv.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 3 1 * 

and powerful before their different races had any appreciable 
influence on the world, the Egyptians had maintained their 
matchless powers ; and the splendours of their early empire 
are still seen, though dimly, in Thebes and Memphis, in 
Heliopolis and Phibeseth,in pyramids, obelisks, and sphinxes. 
Everything in Egypt's early history betokened a continuance 
of her power ; in subsequent centuries, temporary reverses 
were soon corrected, and yet, in the midst of abounding 
evidences of stability, prophets foretold a national history 
altogether peculiar, and in striking contrast with that of 
either Ishmael or Israel. Through the same laws of human 
foresight or sagacity, the rationalist cannot possibly account 
for predictions so widely varying, as those which describe 
the future of the Arabians, the Jews, and the Egyptians. 

National changes, that are utterly inconsistent with 
those anticipations which the previous course of Egyptian 
history should have suggested, were foretold with the most 
fearless confidence. The minuter, as well as the more 
general prophecies, have been notably fulfilled; but it is 
necessary for our present object to refer only to two or three 
of those more prominent predictions which describe Egypt's 
future state. 

" And they shall be there a base kingdom. It shall be 
the basest of the kingdoms j neither shall it exalt itself 
any more above the nations : for I will diminish them, that 
they shall no more rule over the nations." * " And there 
shall no more be a prince of the land of Egypt: and I will 
put a fear in the land of Egypt." 2 

The condition of Egypt is so different from that of the 
Jews or Ishmaelites, that " he who runs may read it ; " the 
former are scattered and without a home, and the latter 

1 Ezekicl xxix. 14, 15. 2 Ibid xxx. 13. 



312 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIV. 

are independent and free as they were three thousand years 
ago : but Egypt has sunk to be base among the nations, 
and to be ruled by foreigners or strangers. That kingdom 
which was long= the most powerful and most honoured 
among the nations of the world, has become the helpless 
victim of successive oppressors. Assyria first rivalled her 
splendour, and, after lessening her power for a season, 
humbled her. Three hundred and fifty years before the 
Christian era, the Persians reduced her to a comparatively 
degraded condition, and in succession the Macedonians, 
the Romans, the Saracens, the Mamelukes, and the Turks 
have trodden her fertile plains and greatly embarrassed her. 
Although Egypt temporarily revived under the vigorous 
rule of the Ptolemies, they were " foreigners/' and the pre- 
dictions held true, " there shall no more be a prince of the 
land of Egypt :" " The sceptre of Egypt shall depart away." 
For more than two thousand years the degradation of the 
kingdom has been painfully visible amid the profusion of 
nature's benefits. Its comparatively ignominious state, its 
acknowledged baseness among nations in the midst of which 
it is still lingering, enfeebled and paralytic, so distinctly 
fulfil the bold prophecies of Isaiah and Ezekiel, that we are 
justified in demanding the acceptance of supernatural teach- 
ing as the explanation of Egypt's varying history. Every 
fact which travellers describe, and the past and the present 
historical photographs by which modern inquiries have 
assisted the student of prophecy, so vindicate and confirm 
the truth of the predictions, that no one can escape without 
difficulty from the impression that the prophets were super- 
naturally guided by the Spirit of God to the truths which 
they have written. 1 

1 See "Fairbairn on Prophecy," pp. 208, 209. 



CHAP. XIV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 313 



There is another series of prophecies minuter, and in 
some of their aspects more specific, which yet, in detail and 
results, are so different that no rationalistic theory can 
possibly harmonise and explain them. The predictions 
regarding Tyre, Nineveh, and Babylon, are so distinct, 
and they have been so literally fulfilled, that it is almost 
inconceivable how any unprejudiced student can repudiate 
the idea of a deeper insight and a surer guidance than 
man's. 

The prophecies were uttered when these great cities were 
basking in the light of prosperity, and there was no likelihood 
of ruin. With our knowledge of ages of history, and, conse- 
quently, of those laws that determine the growth and decay 
of nations, we might anticipate with tolerable accuracy the 
upbreaking of an empire, or the overthrow of a city; but 
this experience was not possessed by the prophets, and 
even if they had possessed such knowledge of national 
history as men now enjoy, they could not possibly have 
described with such exactness ruins so different as are 
those of the cities to which reference has just been made. 
Not only are the prophecies general in their outline, but 
they state such distinct particulars as no mere human fore- 
sight could have discovered. Let us notice them briefly in 
detail. 

1. Those predictions which relate to Tyre are very clearly 
embodied in the writings of Isaiah and Ezekiel. While 
Tyre was the very centre of the commerce of the civilised 
world, and Carthage, the rival of Rome, was one of her 
colonies, Isaiah, one hundred and twenty-five years before 
her overthrow, with almost overwhelming earnestness, fore- 
told her approaching fate ; and with singular vividness 
Ezekiel wrote beforehand the details of her devastation. 
" Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against 



3H BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIV. 

thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up 
against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up. And 
they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her 
towers : I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her 
like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading 
of nets in the midst of the sea : for I have spoken it, saith 
the Lord God ; and it shall become a spoil to the nations. 
And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey 
of thy merchandise ; and they shall break down thy walls, 
and destroy thy pleasant houses : and they shall lay thy 
stones, and thy timber, and thy dust, in the midst of the 
water. And I will make thee like the top of a rock : thou 
shalt be a place to spread nets upon ; thou shalt be built no 
more : for I the Lord have spoken it, saith the Lord God. 
I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more: though 
thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith 
the Lord God." 1 

These predictions have been literally fulfilled, but at inter- 
vals of time. Looking at lights in a straight line, we 
suppose there is only one shining, but no sooner is the one 
passed than we discover others in succession : so is it in 
this prophecy: its lights are separate yet continuous ; part 
was fulfilled at one time, and part at another. For thirteen 
years Nebuchadnezzar plied the siege of Tyre, "the head 
became bald," and " the shoulder peeled." Sorely pressed, 
the Tyrians, having transferred their families and their wealth 
to an island close to the shore, abandoned old or continental 
Tyre to the army of the besieger. Enraged by finding that 
the citizens and their treasures had been removed beyond 
their reach, they completely destoyed the city ; they left it 
an utter ruin ; and they appear to have carried into captivity 

1 Ezekiel xxvi. 1-5, 12, 14, 21, 



CHAP. XIV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 3 J 5 

the Tyrian royal family. The subjection continued until the 
end of " the seventy years " referred to by Isaiah xxiii. 15-17, 
when the Babylonian monarchy was set aside by the Persians. 
Not until Alexander the Great carried his conquests east- 
ward was insular Tyre attacked, and as "the stones, and the 
timber, and the dnst " of old Tyre were cast into the sea to 
form a passage from the shore to new Tyre, for Alexander's 
troops, the old prophecy was literally fulfilled. Thus, the 
very city was "cast into the sea," and is "no more;" 
though sought for " it cannot be found." The desolation is 
complete. Insular Tyre fell beneath the relentless arm of 
Alexander the Great, and it is now literally, as travellers 
describe it, "a place for the spreading of nets in the midst 
of the sea." 

2. The prophecies regarding Nineveh differ much from 
those which describe the overthrow of Tyre. Taken literally 
and apart from what has been recently ascertained by mound 
explorers, they appear to be unlikely, if not contradictory, 
in their reference to the means by which the city was to be 
destroyed. The accounts of Nineveh in other writings than 
the Bible, confirm its delineations of its strength and grandeur. 
Heathen historians have described its walls as a hundred feet 
in height, sixty miles in circumference, and defended by 
fifteen hundred towers, which were two hundred feet high. 
With marvellous force and vividness does the prophet Nahum 
proclaim the means by which this great city would be over- 
thrown, and the permanence of its desolation. By two 
opposite elements, — the flood and the fire, — was its over- 
throw to be achieved ; though vast in its extent and com- 
manding in its power, it was yet to be covered with abomin- 
able filth, and " made vile ; " and though glorious in its 
position among the nations, it was destined to become " a 
gazing stock." " But with an over-running flood he will 



3 lg BLENDING LIGHTS.- [CHAP. XIV. 

make an utter end of the place thereof." 1 " The gates of 
the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dis- 
solved." ' 2 But Fire also was to be a worker for the destruc- 
tion of this doomed city. " For while they be folden together 
as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they 
shall be devoured as stubble fully dry." 3 "The Fire shall 
devour thy bars." 4 " There shall the fire devour thee." 5 
To a heathen witness are we indebted for evidence of the 
fulfilment of these seemingly incongruous predictions, and 
that evidence is complete. He has told us that after the 
Assyrian King had gained these great victories over his 
enemies, and their power seemed utterly broken, he and 
his soldiers abandoned themselves to revelry. But the 
Medes and Persians having rallied their scattered forces, 
and having received in the Bactrians a new ally, suddenly 
fell on- the Assyrian monarch and his army, when they had 
given themselves as slaves to drink, and they so completely 
overwhelmed them that the Assyrian King had to betake 
himself to the city and remain shut within its walls as a 
captive. Thus was the prophecy fulfilled, " While they are 
drunken as drunkards they shall be devoured as stubble fully 
dry." Completely crushed by an overwhelming force, they 
were in their weakness "folden as thorns." For two years 
the Assyrian monarch was secure within the strongly-fortified 
city, but in the third year, when he had made vigorous pre- 
parations forretrieving his position, an unexpected inundation 
of the river^Tigris broke down the massive wall and carried 
away about twenty furlongs of it ; " the gates of the river 
were opened " " with an over-running flood," a breach 
was made; and the king, feeling that all was now lost, made 
for himself and his associates a large funeral pile of wood, 

1 Nahum chap. i. 8. 2 ii. 6. 3 i. io 4 iii. 13. 5 iii. 15 



CHAP. XIV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 317 

and placing on it his gold and silver and apparel, he perished 
with them. Most unlikely as was the combination, the 
Fire also did its predicted work, and thus the palace was 
dissolved, or literally " molten." 

The same heathen historian has told us that many talents 
of gold and silver which were preserved from the fire and 
found throughout the city, were carried off by the enemy to 
Ecbatana, and from recent sources we have learned that the 
implements of war, the robes, the ornaments, the ear-rings, 
the bracelets, the vases, the chairs, the tables, the ordinary 
articles of domestic furniture, were designed with such con- 
summate taste as "to rival the productions of the most 
cultivated period of Greek art." And does not this explain 
the prophetic injunction, " Take ye the spoil of silver, take 
ye the spoil of gold ; for there is none end of the store and 
glory out of all the pleasant furniture." 1 

The completeness of the destruction and the permanence 
of the desolation were foretold with such bold distinctness, 
as to give the impression that Nahum's language was merely 
hyperbolical, but the results have proved to the very letter 
its historical accuracy. The Lord " will make an utter end 
of the place thereof." "Affliction shall not rise up the 
second time." "She is empty, and void, and waste." " Nine- 
veh is laid waste: who will bemoan her?" 2 And Zephaniah, 
with a boldness no less arresting and impressive, proclaimed 
Nineveh's destruction and ruin. " The Lord " will make 
Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness. And flocks 
shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the 
nations : both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in 
the upper lintels of it; their voice shall sing in the windows ; 
desolation shall be in the thresholds : for he shall uncover 

1 Nahum ii. 9. 2 Nahum i. 8, 9 ; ii., 10 ; ii., 7. 



3l8 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XIV. 

the cedar work." " How is she become a desolation, a place 
for beasts to lie down in ! " 1 

Fearfully and most convincingly have all these predictions 
been fulfilled. Nineveh has gone down in "utter ruin." 
" Affliction has not risen up a second time." The very ruins 
were lost. Mounds of "abominable filth" were cast on 
the place where her palaces stood, making her " vile" ; and 
all that Layard, Botta, and others have done in opening her 
ruins and exposing her long-buried treasures, have given a 
new fulfilment to the prophecy by making her " a gazing- 
stock " to the whole civilised world. 

3. No less distinct were the prophecies regarding the de- 
struction of Babylon, but the means of the overthrow were 
so different from those by which Nineveh was overwhelmed, 
that the prediction carries within itself indirect evidence of 
its truth. One hundred and sixty years before an enemy 
approached the city, its doom was foretold. Isaiah and 
Jeremiah, with startling vividness, and yet in tones of deepest 
sadness, delineate the future of Babylon at the time when 
its glory and strength bade defiance to every prediction. 
Most mysteriously have the springs of history been touched, 
and most distinctly have prophetic results been brought out. 
Long descriptive passages in the Bible might be quoted, 
but two or three will be sufficient for our argument. " Be- 
hold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not 
regard silver ; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. 
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the 
Chaldees' excellence, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom 
and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall 
it be dwelt in from generation to generation : neither shall 
the Arabian pitch tent there ; neither shall the shepherds 

1 Zephaniah ii. 13, 14, 15. 



CHAP. XIV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 319 

make their fold there : but the wild beasts of the desert 
shall lie there ; and their houses shall be full of doleful 
creatures \ and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance 
there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their 
desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces." 1 
Again, "And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place 
for dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, without an in- 
habitant/' 2 These and similar predictions of overthrow and 
utter ruin have been literally fulfilled, as every one knows 
who has even very cursorily read the history of the ancient 
eastern monarchies. No less strangely were the means an- 
nounced by which this powerful city was to be overwhelmed, 
and no less exactly have the results come forth as predicted. 
For the taking of Nineveh, a river was to rise and make a 
breach; but for the taking of Babylon a river was to be 
withdrawn, and its deserted bed was to be a highway for the 
approach of Cyrus's soldiers. Thus saith the Lord " that saith 
unto the deep, Be dry ; and I will dry up thy rivers." 3 
"A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried 
up." 4 "And I will dry up her sea, and make her springs 
dry." 5 The secrecy of the approach and the helplessness 
of the ensnared Babylonians, were no less clearly taught in 
such predictions as these : "I have laid a snare for thee, 
and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not 
aware : thou art found, and also caught, because thou 
hast striven against the Lord." 6 It is unnecessary to repeat 
the well-known facts of Cyrus having turned the river 
Euphrates from its course, and of his troops passing secretly 
into the city when Belshazzar was madly quaffing wine from 
the vessels of the Sanctuary, until the mysterious handwrit- 

1 Isaiah xiii. 17, 19-22. 2 Jeremiah li. 37. 3 Isaiah xliv. 27. 

4 Jeremiah 1. 38. 5 Ibid li. 36. G Jeremiah 1. 24. 



320 BLENDING LIGHTS. [chap. XIV. 

ing on the wall paralysed him with terror. Babylon was 
" snared and caught" The soldiers having been taught by 
Cyrus that the doors of the houses were of palm-wood and 
covered with bitumen, secretly carried torches with them 
and suddenly set fire to the city, 1 fulfilling the prediction, — 
"And her high gates shall be burned with fire; and 
the people shall labour in vain, and the folk in the fire, 
and they shall be weary." 2 So complete was the stratagem 
of Cyrus, so sudden the seizure of the place, and so silent 
and sure its overthrow, that those in the one part of the 
city did not know for some time what disasters had over- 
taken another portion of the inhabitants. In every particu- 
lar have the prophecies been fulfilled, and they differ so 
completely in arrangement from those relating to Tyre and 
Nineveh as to remove them from any of the common efforts 
of that sagacity or foresight of which rationalism has recently 
attempted to make so much. 

In short, the details are so varied, and yet so accurately 
stated regarding both the means by which these great cities 
were to be destroyed, and the permanence of their ruin, that 
it is difficult to conceive how any unprejudiced student can 
escape the impression that the prophets were supernaturally 
guided. 

J Xenophon, Book I. chap. cxci. 2 Jeremiah li. 58. 






CHAPTER XV. 

Recent Theories regarding the Supernatural and the Reign of 
Law — Evidence in Nature of the Supernatural. 

"The battle against the supernatural has been going on long, and 
strong men have conducted and are conducting it ; but what they 
want is a weapon. The logic of unbelief wants a universal. But no 
real universal is forthcoming, and it only wastes its strength in wielding 
a fictitious one." — The Rev. J. B. Mozley, B.D. 

THE careful study of the Bible constrains those who 
are not wedded to some foregone conclusion, to 
acknowledge impressions or ideas of a supernatural influence 
such as are created by the perusal of no other book. The 
brief review which we have taken of history in its relation 
to Prophecy, has shown an enlightening and a controlling 
power which is not recognisable within the sphere of 
ordinary records. But in accepting and advocating the 
existence of supernatural influences, we have to confront 
relentless opposition. 

Animated by an intense love of nature, and sensitively- 
jealous of even the slightest reference to the supernatural, 
some of our most influential writers are not only repudiating 
every agency which is independent of physical tests, but 
assigning to the laws of nature an executive or administrative 
function. They are investing them with powers which can 
only be legitimately connected with intelligence and purpose; 
and the scorn with which they repel every allusion to direct 
control by a personal Deity, is less perplexing than it is 
saddening. The repudiation of the supernatural is, with 



32 2 BLENDING LIGHTS. |_ CHAP - xv - 

them, axiomatic ; they put the cause out of court ; they can 
see in nature nothing more than a rigidly regulated system, 
and they limit the basis of their philosophy to those forces 
and phenomena with which alone physical science is 
conversant. They do not hesitate to assert that the Creator 
" cannot be imagined " as acting on the line of cause and 
effect, and that even by His own hand no law can be 
deflected or reversed. He has not the liberty of acting, 
except within the lines of a fixed routine ; and in the moral 
government of the human race He is without freedom of 
volition apart from those laws which keep in harmonious 
movement the everlasting machinery of the universe. 

The enthusiasm with which researches have been prosecuted 
in physical science, has predisposed some to originate, and 
many to accept theories, of which nothing would have been 
ever heard if there had been similar earnestness in the 
counterpoise study of metaphysics. Opposite tendencies 
would have been balanced, and in the peaceful walks of 
science and philosophy we should not have been meeting 
bigotry and intolerance as narrow, sharp, and unrelenting, 
as have ever confronted the student of purely theological 
controversies. The conclusions which have found in Britain 
a large measure of sympathy, if not avowed acceptance, 
may be best estimated through the language of their 
advocates. A few statements may be sufficiently historical 
and expository not only to induce a careful examination of 
the tendency of British scepticism, but to show the probable 
effect of those concessions which some of our ablest Chris- 
tian apologists are making in the struggle to counteract its 
progress. 

As the late Rev. Baden Powell, Savilian Professor of 
Geometry in the University of Oxford, was among the first 
to utter, with fearless emphasis, what others were holding 



CHAP. XV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 323 

" with bated breath," and as he expounded to the youth of 
one of the first universities in the civilised world, convictions 
which were warmly welcomed, we at the outset submit his 
conclusion : — 

"It is the province of science to investigate nature ; it 
can contemplate nothing but in connection with the order 
of nature ; it cannot point to anything out of nature. The 
limits of the study of nature do not bring us to the confines 
of the supernatural." l From the very condition of the 
case, it is evident that the supernatural can never be a 
matter of science or hioivledge; for the moment it is brought 
within the cognisance of reason, it ceases to be supernatural. 
If nature could really terminate anywhere, then we should 
not find the supernatural, but a chaos, a blank, — total 
darkness, — anarchy, — Atheism." 2 "The supernatural is 
the offspring of ignorance, and the parent of superstition 
and idolatry ; the natural is the assurance of science, and 
the preliminary to all rational views of Theism." 3 

Without carrying his reasoning so far as to exclude the 
supernatural as altogether unreal or unimaginable, he 
insisted that a " theism of omnipotence, in any sense deviating 
from the order of nature, must be entirely derived from other 
teaching," that is, from the Bible. While asserting that 
" creation," and the ideas we attach to it, are derived from 
the Scriptures, and demanding that they be not confounded 
with those ideas which are of purely scientific origin, he 
admitted their value, but traced them to faith. The school 
to which he belonged has moved considerably in advance 
of his opinions. Herbert Spencer, who may be regarded 
as among the foremost expositors of its present beliefs, 
rejects, as utterly "unthinkable" and "unknowable," that 

1 "The Order of Nature," p. 231. 2 Ibid. p. 232. 3 Ibid. p. 248. 



324 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XV. 

which Baden Powell, notwithstanding the fervour of his love 
for physical science, held fast as coming from another source. 
The supernatural in its highest relations, Spencer displaces 
and disowns as " unscrutable," and in reference to the forms 
of religion, he declares " that no hypothesis is even think- 
able." 1 

The Deity is virtually, though not formally, excluded ; and 
the supernatural, in both its relative and absolute aspects, is 
consequently repudiated. What is unknowable or unthink- 
able is equal to nothing, and the whole system must be ever 
destitute of emotional fervour and moral value. There is 
nothing in it to engage our sympathies, sustain our hopes } 
stimulate our services, and develop brotherly kindness. 

But the principles of this school demand logically a much 
wider application than British thinkers generally are dis- 
posed to make. There is evidently no resting-place short 
of that which French writers have taken and defended ; but 
the former shrink from it as a course whose inevitable issue is 
Materialism. The boldness of continental reasoning sheds 
light on the end to which its logic is guiding the disciples 
of that school ; and its conclusion must be repudiated or 
accepted. 

" If we do not enter on this discussion," says M. Havet, 
" it is from the impossibility of doing so without admitting 
an inadmissible proposition, namely, — the mere possibility of 
the supernatural. Our principle is to hold ourselves constantly 
from the supernatural, — that is, from the imagination. The 
dominant principle of all true history, as of all true science, is, 
that that which is not in nature is nothing, unless as an idea." 2 

"Positive philosophy," writes M. Littre, "sets aside the 
systems of theology which suppose supernatural action." 



1 a First Principles," p, 46. 2 Rroae des Deux Mondes, August, 1863. 



CHAP. XV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 325 

M. Renan has said with equal boldness : — " For myself, I 
believe that there is not in the universe an intelligence 
superior to that of man; the absolute of justice and reason 
manifests itself only in humanity ; regarded apart from 
humanity, that absolute is but an abstraction. The infinite 
exists only when it clothes itself in form." l 

These principles have been warmly welcomed and vindi- 
cated by some of our more eminent physicists and meta- 
physicians who, although prosecuting different studies, and 
adopting in some instances contradictory principles, have 
shown in their conclusions remarkable similarity. At a 
recent meeting of the British Association in Edinburgh, the 
dogma, " Nature is God/' found a willing advocate ; and even 
where the avowal of the speculatist has not been direct, his 
statements have been sufficiently expository of the ideas that 
Law is supreme, and that it is fully adequate to the produc- 
tion of all that we can discover. The writings of Darwin, 
and the " General Conclusions ;; of Owen, on the side of 
natural science ; the writings of Mill, Herbert Spencer, and 
others, on the side of metaphysics and ethics, at least in 
their relation to natural theology; and those of Sir John 
Lubbock and Mr. E. B. Tylor, uniting the physical and the 
metaphysical with the social and moral, give the mournful 
impression, notwithstanding the surpassing interest of their 
reasonings and their records, that they are, unintentionally 
it may be, yet ruthlessly, severing the connection of the 
human spirit with its God, and sending it forth a cheerless 
and bewildered wanderer amid cold and inexorable laws, 
with nothing in the future which hope can irradiate, and 
with no Being to whom now, or hereafter, the heart can 
permanently cling. 

1 Quoted in Pressense's " Jesus Christ: his Life and Times," pp. 10, n. 



326 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XV. 

Sir John Lubbock, it is true, as has been already noticed, 
p. 1 88, does pay a kind of general homage to religion when 
he says, that it appeals so strongly to our hopes and fears, 
and is so great a consolation in times of sorrow and sickness, 
that he can hardly think any nation would ever abandon it 
altogether : but of what value it can be in the midst of such 
natural processes as he describes, it is difficult to conjecture. 
He too heavily taxes our credulity when he asks us to 
believe that religion has its beginning in dreams, and that 
marriage and all other social relations have been slowly 
evolved through the history of savage and semi-savage tribes 
without any reference to revelation. His admissions, how- 
ever, involve two facts, — the one, the existence of a future 
state ; the other, the influence of a supernatural Being, to 
whose service religion alone can bind us ; without both 
of which, indeed, religion is valueless, if not impossible. 
When religion is acknowledged, the attempt to escape from 
the supernatural is vain. Mill has seen this difficulty ; and, 
to meet it, has assumed the possibility of religion without a 
Deity. " Though conscious," he says, " of being an ex- 
tremely small minority, we venture to think that a religion 
may exist without belief in God, and that a religion without a 
God may be, even to Christians, an instructive and profitable 
object of contemplation." 1 

Christians, of course, may profitably study religious systems 
or beliefs which are without revelation for their basis, and 
"without a God" as their object to adore and obey; but 
there is not a trace of reliable evidence to prove the exist- 
ence of a religion with nothing higher than the natural for 
its basis. With the natural only as the source of successive 
evolutions, there can be no unseen sphere into which to 

1 "Comte and Positivism," p. 133. 



CHAP. XV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 327 

gaze, nor higher and spiritual Being with whom man may 
hold elevating intercourse. He is utterly isolated and 
unaided. This boldly unphilosophical banishment of the 
supernatural from the domain of both Reason and Faith, and 
the melancholy attempt, at the same time, to retain a place 
for religion and its consolations, very clearly show the 
insecurity and incompleteness of that philosophy by which 
these guides are themselves influenced, and by which, as 
with a rod of iron, they strive to rule others. The severity 
with which they denounce every one who refuses to unite 
with them in rejecting the supernatural even as an idea, or 
as an element of tentative reasoning, is absurdly inconsistent 
with that freedom of inquiry which they so eloquently claim 
for themselves ; but it is not without its gain to their side, 
inasmuch as it is leading some earnest Christian apologists 
to make concessions regarding Scripture principles which 
have no warrant whatever from physical science. It has 
become fashionable to acknowledge the reign of Law to such 
an extent as to reduce the Bible to the level of a somewhat 
confused and unreliable history, and to accept inferences 
which are telling disastrously on multitudes of our young 
men who have little leisure for study. While there has been 
too much assertion on the one side, there has been too much 
concession on the other. We propose, therefore, in the 
midst of this confusion, to mark some positions which 
Christian apologists may occupy with safety, in the humble 
hope that, while some may be dissatisfied with our sugges- 
tions, others may be aided by them. 

On examining the writings of those Christian apologists 
who have of late been discussing the relations of the natural 
and the supernatural, we have been perplexed by conflicting 
inferences. As they reason from widely different principles, 
they render it difficult to determine where the natural ends 



328 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. X V 

and - the supernatural begins ; or, when it has begun, how 
much each embraces. The term supernatural and super- 
human, while suitably expressing incidental distinctions, 
have contributed nothing to what is essential and permanent. 
The natural has been variously represented : (i) It is that 
part of the material universe which is related to man, but 
not including him; (2) it is the visible universe, including 
man; and (3) it is the visible universe, including not only 
man, but also some all-pervading, undefined, mysterious 
power. 

Principal M'Cosh, who has rendered the highest services 
to philosophy in its Christian aspects, has not shown his 
wonted breadth and clearness in discussing the supernatural 
in relation to the natural. After a careful perusal of his 
work, it is scarcely possible to say, with any satisfactory 
degree of exactness, what are their boundary lines, or how 
much the one includes, and how much the other. The 
impression at one time is, that nature includes only the 
earth and the system of which it is a part ; at another, that 
it also includes man ; at another, that " in nature there is a 
Special Providence." 

The subject is much complicated by his introducing this 
last idea, as it is itself connected with the supernatural. 
Special Providence is, logically, suggestive of the supernatural 
rather than of the natural. The confusion is increased by 
the proposition, that "in nature there is a moral govern- 
ment," and also by the proofs and illustrations which 
Principal M'Cosh gives, to the effect that " God encourages 
the morally good," and " will in the end punish offenders." 
To describe " special providence " and " the moral govern- 
ment of God " as " in the natural," and as part of it, is not 
only in itself incongruous, but it renders anything like a 
philosophical solution of this problem much more difficult, 



CHAP. XV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 3 2 9 

if not hopelessly intricate ; for while special providence works 
through natural laws, it presupposes an intelligent over- 
ruling power. 

Similar difficulties are created by his general remarks on 
the supernatural. 

" We have seen," he says, " that in this world there is a 
set of objects and agencies which constitute a system or 
cosmos, which may have relations to regions beyond, but 
is, all the while, a self-contained sphere, with a space around 
it — an island separated so far from other lands. This 
system we call ' natural.' The beings above this sphere and 
the agents beyond it, though, it may be, acting on it, we call 
* supernatural/ God, who created the cosmical agencies, 
and set them in operation, is Himself supernatural." 

But subsequently he so associates others with God, as 
supernatural, that when any event which would be deemed 
supernatural occurs, it is beyond our power to say which of 
these supernatural beings has been its source, or whether 
God Himself has directly caused it, either through higher 
laws brought specially into action, or by His own will. 

We are left in the dark as to how far angels may of 
themselves produce supernatural occurrences, and as to how 
many other beings may have the power of modifying 
the Reign of Law, and influencing human history. The 
application of the term supernatural, like that of the term 
natural, is so often shifted and so variously modified, that 
we can make little progress as to what is within the reign of 
Law, and as to what is beyond it. The obscurity is not 
lessened when he writes of the " supernatural coming into 
the lower sphere and acting in unison with the agencies 
already there." What supernatural is it? God, or other 
beings separate from Him ? Again, " the natural does 
appear operating and co-operating with the supernatural in 



33<> 



BLENDING LIGHTS. 



[CHAP. XV. 



not a few of the dispensations of God." This distinction 
between the supernatural and the dispensations of God, it is 
not easy to apprehend. We question its reality ■ or, admitting 
its reality, whether it is of the least practical value in this 
discussion, either with those who look exclusively to the 
reign of Law as the explanation of all anomalies, or with 
those who advocate the direct reign of God. 

Dr. Bushnell, in his elaborate and eloquent work, " Nature 
and the Supernatural," defines nature to be "that created 
realm of being or substance which has an acting, a going on, 
a process from within itself, under and by its own laws." 
Limiting it to the physical universe, he describes it as "a chain 
of causes and effects, or a scheme of orderly succession deter- 
mined from within the scheme itself." "That is super- 
natural," he says, " whatever it be, that is either not in the 
chain of cause and effect, or which acts on the chain of 
cause and effect in nature from without the chain." By 
this definition man is placed beyond this chain \ he acts on 
it, he interferes with its adjustments, and is therefore to be 
regarded as supernatural. While this is so far true, it is 
defective, as representing only a part of the system of the 
universe. - He presses vigorously the view that man has 
"properly a supernatural power," that he stands "out clear 
and sovereign as a being supernatural," and that he is able 
so to act from without " on the chain of cause and effect, 
as to produce results which the laws of nature would never 
have produced but for his interference." " The veiy idea 
of our personality is that of a being not under the law of 
cause and effect, a being supernatural. Man is an original 
power, acting not in the line of causality, but from himself." 
In these statements a principle is assumed, which, in his 
use of it, must be much restricted ; for man is, in his own 
sphere, in a special sense, constantly under the law of cause 



CHAP. XV. ] . EL E ND ING LIGHTS. 3S 1 

and effect; and is, besides, subject to higher laws than are 
those economies beneath him which he subordinates to his 
purposes. 

" The supernatural/' he adds, " is that range of sub- 
stance, if any such there be, that acts upon the chain of 
cause and effect in nature from without the chain, pro- 
ducing thus results that, by mere nature, could not come 
to pass." x 

This somewhat indefinite " if any such there be" is too 
flickering a light to aid us reliably in traversing this intricate 
subject. " A range of substance, if such there be," is 
expected to produce what cannot possibly be accounted for 
apart from intelligence and purpose. Without that purpose, 
substance left to itself could never so act on substance as to 
educe extraordinary effects, and invest them with permanent 
meaning. Let effects break out at any time in such a form 
as to be obviously independent of ordinary laws, and be at 
the same time morally influential through their connection 
with human history, and they will, remain inexplicable, 
except in relation to the regulating will of God. If we are 
to comprehend aright the moral government under which 
our responsibility is increasing as our knowledge of nature 
extends, we must go further than to hidden laws and superior 
agents behind the known; we must rise directly to His hand 
in whom all move and have their being. 

In his "Reign of Law," the Duke of Argyll has, with great 
fairness, tested the definitions and delineations which Prin- 
cipal M'Cosh and Dr. Bushnell have contributed, and has 
himself presented valuable suggestions, yet he leaves the 
subject in somewhat perplexing ambiguity. While we accept 
his assertion that " the reign of law is, indeed, so far as we 

V " 

1 [Page 23.] 



332 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XV. 



can observe it, universal," and that " nature, in the largest 
sense, includes all that is 

' In the round ocean, and the living air, 
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man,' " * 

we refuse to admit that Law, in being universal, is absolute 
and exclusive, and that God acts only in and through its 
agency. Nor is his view of the supernatural so distinctly 
unfolded as is necessary. His definitions are not free from 
the obscurity of which he justly complains in others, and he 
appears to restrict the "doings" of the supernatural more than 
the principles of Christianity can fairly admit. He touches 
the right spring, we believe, when he says, " By super- 
natural power, do we not mean power independent of the 
use of means, as distinguished from power depending on 
knowledge — even infinite knowledge — of the means proper 
to be employed ? " This power, independent of the use of 
means, is essential to the idea of creation. Its origin is the 
will of God. He gave existence to means, and then used 
them for His manifold purposes. The real difficulty — that 
which many say is inconceivable — lies, as his Grace states, 
" in the idea of will exercised without the use of means — not 
in the idea of will exercised through means which are be- 
yond our knowledge or beyond our reach." But we are 
perplexed by the concession which he makes in the very- 
next sentence, — " Now, have we any right to say that belief 
in this is essential to all religion ? If we have not, then it 
is only putting, as so many other sayings do put, additional 
difficulties in the way of religion." Belief in this, that is, in 
God's will, exercised without means, is conceivable, and 
though not essential to all religions, it is essential to Christi- 
anity. His Grace assumes that the Creator did first give 

1 "Reign of Law," pp. 4, n. 



CHAP. XV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 333 



existence to the means, and then did, and now does, use 
them for the accomplishment of ends. Will, then, must have 
been exercised without the use of means. " But the very- 
idea of a Creator involves the idea, not merely of a Being 
by whom the properties of matter are employed, but of a 
Being from whose Will the properties of matter are derived." 
Surely belief in that is essential to Christianity. To refuse 
this is not only to put additional difficulties in the way of 
religion, but to bar altogether the acceptance of Revelation 
and the Gospel. He says truly, " But those who believe 
that God's Will does govern the world, must believe that, 
ordinarily at least, He does govern it by the choice and use 
of means, which means were again pre-established by Him- 
self." On this there can be no difference of opinion ; God 
does govern ordinarily by the use of means ; there is a reign 
of Law, yet not a blind despotism of Force. But in the 
next sentence his Grace requires a concession which we can- 
not possibly make, when he says, " Nor have we any certain 
reason to believe that He ever acts otherwise." He has 
acted otherwise in creation, and what has been may be 
again. We should be sorry to misinterpret the views of one 
whose contributions we, in many respects, greatly value and 
admire, but we do think that he makes concessions which 
neutralise much of his best reasoning. If he fails anywhere, 
it is in discussing these fundamental principles. In a foot- 
note in the Fifth Edition of his " Reign of Law," he accqDts 
as satisfactory Mr. Lecky's reference to his views, as convey- 
ing "a notion of a miracle which would not differ generically 
from a human act, though it would still be strictly available 
for evidential purposes;" but in accepting this restricted use 
of a miracle, he enunciates a principle which must hamper 
and enfeeble all his reasoning, not only as to the supernatural, 
but as to Christianity itself. " Beyond the immediate pur- 



334 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XV. 

purposes of benevolence," he says, " which were served by 
almost all the miracles of the New Testament, the only other 
purpose which is ever assigned to them is an ' evidential 
purpose,' — that is, a purpose that they might serve as signs of 
the presence of superhuman knowledge, and of the working 
of superhuman power. They were performed, in short, to 
assist faith, and not to confound reason." 

It is strange to find one so acute in discriminating prin- 
ciples, and so comprehensive in reasoning, restricting the 
miracles of the New Testament to merely evidential pur- 
poses ; they serve that end, it is true, but in their profound- 
est connections they are more than evidential, they are 
eminently doctrinal. "The facts of Christianity," says 
Archdeacon Lee, " are represented by some as forming no 
part of its essential doctrines ; they rank, it is argued, no 
higher than its external accessories. It is impossible to main- 
tain this distinction." And Professor Bannerman, in his 
work on Inspiration, also refuses to separate the miracles 
from the dogmatic teaching of Scripture : 'for they are, as he 
believes, to a large extent identical : " In many cases," he 
adds, " the miracles are nothing but doctrines rendered into 
facts, and the doctrines only miracles interpreted into truths.'' 

I. The Relations of the Supernatural to the 
Natural. 

In determining the mutual relations of the supernatural 
and the natural, we must extend the sphere of the natural 
beyond that to which it has been limited, and endeavour to 
simplify the ideas prevalent as to miraculous agency. With 
much diffidence we follow the distinguished writers to whom 
reference has been so freely made ; but the difficulties which 
remain are such, that, notwithstanding all their concessions, 
and in large measure because of them, the whole subject 
needs reconsideration. Eager and ingenuous inquirers, 



CHAP. XV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 335 

especially among young men, pausing at almost every step, 
have found apparent contradictions in some of their definite 
propositions, and they are refusing to accept statements 
which have left vitally important questions in even greater 
obscurity than before. We enter on this part of the discus- 
sion cherishing the hope that, if we fail to satisfy the philo- 
sophic inquirer on the side of Christianity, others more com- 
petent may undertake the task of exposition when they 
observe what questions continue to tax the reason and the 
faith of many thoughtful students. 

i. The Natural: Its Extent. 

Nature not only includes all that is in the physical uni- 
verse, at least in so far as it influences man, or may be 
known by him, but is expressive, in the Avidest sense, of all 
that is, as having come forth to be by the will of the Creator. 
Creation and the "natural" are synonymous or co-equal, as 
now existent. Their origin is supernatural. There is 
nothing in nature to show self-origination. It could not of 
its own accord begin to be. All that is now natural was, in 
the beginning, the result of divine power. The will of God, 
omnipotent, sovereign, and inscrutable, is its source and 
stay. 

Some, restricting nature to what is material, cannot escape 
from the trammels of a purely physical philosophy ; while 
others, fixing exclusive regard on psychological truth, as hav- 
ing a reality and a certainty of at least as much consequence 
as " the laws of the planetary motions and chemical affini- 
ties," hasten to the opposite extreme, and demand acknow- 
ledgment of the facts of their science as the only worthy 
foundation of philosophy and natural theology. Both err. 
In excluding either the one or the other, they act unnatur- 
ally ; they divide what God has joined in man, — a body con- 
necting him with the physical, and a soul connecting him 



336 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XV. 



with the spiritual. The fact of a spiritual nature in man is 
presumptive evidence of a spiritual universe around him of 
which he is part, and the spiritual and the natural may 
be alike natural. Philosophy and natural theology must re- 
cognise both, because they really rest on both mental and 
material principles, psychology as well as physics. This 
view is so far held by the Duke of Argyll when he " takes 
the natural in that large and wider sense in which it contains 
within it the whole phenomena of man's intellectual and 
spiritual nature as part, and the most familiar of all parts, of 
the visible system of things." That is the limit which he 
reaches, but we go farther, for ethics cannot be excluded. 
The distinction to which Lord Brougham attempted to give 
permanent prominence between Ontology, or the science of 
What is, and Deontology, or the science of What ought to 
be, cannot be rigidly maintained here. The two sciences 
intermingle. The what is, for instance, in our physical con- 
dition, teaches what ought to be in regard to health, and has 
not only sanitary, but moral, obligations. Besides, conscience 
is part of what is, its existence is universally acknowledged ; 
as a fact it has its place in ontology, but in function and in- 
fluence it passes into the domain of deontology, or what 
ought to be. It regulates conduct, it invests with responsi- 
bility, it is a determining power, not only in individual life, 
but in national history ; it is the basis of religion, and pre- 
pares man for Revelation. 

Nor can we rest here. Philosophically, the natural must 
also embrace those higher rational or spiritual beings who 
have been created, and who in the divine government are 
related to Man. Analogy in the visible, guiding us from 
lower to higher forms of life, and from the higher to the 
highest, Man, warrants our moving upwards through a still 
higher series in the invisible. Analog}' forbids the arrest of 



' 



CHAP. XV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 337 

our course when we are passing from the intellectual in man 
to the confines of the spiritual in the Unseen ; and we can- 
not stop on this threshold without doing violence to the first 
principles of scientific investigation. What analogy has in- 
dicated, the Scriptures directly attest. This statement may, of 
course, be ridiculed by the physicist, but the philosopher 
who has any confidence in the lessons of analogy will admit 
the probability of other and higher existences ; and to the 
Christian who has faith in the Bible it is matter of certainty. 
" For by Him," the Son of God, " were all things created 
that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, 
whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or 
powers." 1 The idea of an ascending series of rational and 
moral beings is familiar to every student of the Bible. And 
is it not illogical on the part of the mere physicist to be 
making perpetual reference to " higher laws " and " hidden 
laws," and to " subtle or mysterious forces yet unknown," 
on his own side of the question, while he denounces as 
"mere imagination" or "superstition" all references on 
the other side to those higher, hidden, and mysterious beings 
to whom analogy directs us, and whom the Bible describes 
as "ministering spirits," as "heavenly hosts"? Is it not 
really more unphilosophical to deny than to admit the exist- 
ence of "higher spiritual beings than man"? Is it not 
more one-sided and less harmonious with our convictions to 
impose such a limit? As man is connected with all life 
below him, is he not also connected with all life and intelli 
gence above him ? 

Such an extending of the sphere of the natural, renders 
easier of solution, we think, some of the more pressing pro- 
blems as to the relations of Law to the supernatural. 

1 Colossians i._i6. 
Y 



338 BLENDING LIGHTS. [chap. XV. 

2. The Supernatural. 

What is the supernatural ? Where does it begin ? What 
sphere does it- fill ? How give it a definite character ? 
What is the source of its power ? 

The supernatural, we believe, can have no moral value to 
man except in its direct connection with the Will of God. 
Apart, indeed, from such connection, the supernatural, 
about which so much has of late been written, is nothing 
more than the natural ; and although the distinction may 
be serviceable, it can relieve the mind of no anxiety ; it 
explains nothing. What we understand and what we 
cannot fully comprehend, may be thus separated by appro- 
priate terms, but both are natural, as dependent on the 
creational and the governing power of God. We acknow- 
ledge the reign of Law everywhere as fully as any one can 
describe it; we admit its prevalence above, around, beneath; 
but we deny its absoluteness. It has vast sway, but still it 
is a subject. When such occurrences have to be explained, 
as iron swimming, when naturally it should sink, the mere 
reference to supernatural agencies or hidden laws explains 
nothing, it leaves us gazing in very helplessness into the 
dark. Be it that there is some hidden law which produced 
that effect, how came it to work at that juncture, and at no 
other ? Can any certain footing be gained until we refer the 
process and the result to the sovereign Will of the great 
Ruler ; or can any adequate solution of the supernatural be 
found but in His wisdom and power ? 

While we gladly acknowledge the aid which the Scriptures 
bring, it is only in the way of confirming a conclusion otherwise 
reached. To this course objections have been raised; it is 
not fair, they allege, to begin the study of natural theology 
with the Bible in our hand, or to employ its light in specula- 
tions as to supernatural agencies ; but this objection has 



CHAP. XV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 339 

been fully disposed of, we think, by the late Archbishop 
Whately in one of his letters to Baden Powell : — 

" It is enough," he says, " if you can establish it as a 
strong probability that there may be a God, and that not 
such as we call God — the Author of all things — but simply 
an unseen, intelligent Being, exercising power over the world. 
And when it is admitted that there may be such a Being, 
there is no absurdity in proceeding to inquire what proofs 
there are of His having directly communicated with man. 
When this is established, we may justly infer from such His 
Revelation, His having probably done so and so, and being 
so and so, of which again we may find confirmation by 
inspecting more closely the other volume — the Created 
Universe." l 

This appears to be a use of Scripture so perfectly fair, 
that we claim its aid in the same way and to the same 
extent, and accept its teaching as confirming the lessons of 
analogy. 

Those who insist on " the grand truth of the universal 
order and constancy of natural causes as a primary law of 
belief, and as so strongly entertained and fixed in the mind 
of every truly inductive inquirer that he cannot even con- 
ceive the possibility of its failure," and who assert that any 
results different from this established order are " inconceiv- 
able to reason," must prove two things ; first, that this 
primary law of belief renders it impossible to have intui- 
tional evidence in favour of the supernatural ; and second, 
that there is no evidence whatever in the natural to train or 
guide the mind to any legitimate conception of a Being 
above all nature. 

In both they fail, and in both the Christian student finds 



Life of Archbishop Whately," p. 148. Edition in one volume. 



34° BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XV. 

support. Why should such results be inconceivable to reason ? 
No evidence has ever been adduced to show that we are 
intellectually incompetent to reach or receive the idea of a 
supernatural Being, or that the idea is itself an outrage on 
any one of our intuitions. Principal M'Cosh has conclu- 
sively shown that our intuitions do not in the least sanction 
the conclusion that " nature has nothing but physical or mun- 
dane law;" and he has shown that they are neither inconsistent 
with a miracle nor violated by its history. 1 Our intuitions 
do not rigorously limit to natural agencies alone the causes 
of the effects which we examine, when they may possibly 
have a divine origin. The very evidence which leads us to 
recognise uniformity in nature, fosters, if it does not create, 
the conviction, that there is a higher power at work than the 
natural exhibits. The assertion that " faith in the super- 
. natural is the essence of all unreason," does violence to our 
intuitions. It sets aside a primary law of belief. The idea 
of the supernatural is not foreign to man ; its prevalence is 
universal. To disown it is unphilosophical. The history 
of our race is its vindication. 

" You may interrogate the human race," says Guizot, " in 
all times and in all places, in all states of society and in all 
grades of civilisation, and you will find them everywhere, 
and always, believing in facts and causes beyond this sensi- 
ble world called nature." 2 

Although Sir John Lubbock has given his decision against 
the universal prevalence of a religious sentiment, the general 
opinion is opposed to his inference. All known races, 
savage and civilised, are connected by the idea of the super- 



1 " The Supernatural," &c, p. 41. See also " Christianity and 
Positivism." 

2 " Meditations sur la Religion," p. 95. 



CHAP. XV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 341 

natural in some one form or other, and by some religious 
customs or habits, however vague or contradictory. 

II. Evidence in Nature of the Supernatural. 

The rigid exclusion of the very idea of the supernatural, is 
unjustifiable. Its banishment does not harmonise with 
the tendencies and the guidance of nature, for we are trained 
to the idea by the economies which surround us. Not by 
intuition only, nor by human history alone, with its uni- 
versal beliefs, but by the structure of the earth also, and by 
an ascending series of manifestations, are we constrained to 
look to the supernatural. In the facts of science is the basis 
of our argument, and their relations may be briefly described. 

1. In the inorganic fabric of our globe, there is indirect yet 
impressive evidence of a power which has been at work 
beyond all that physical tests can touch. In the disposition . 
and distribution of the materials which surround us, there is 
abundant evidence of design. The superposition and the 
arrangements of the rocks and the metals, represent through 
long antecedent ages such obvious regard to the future 
constitution of man, that we cannot connect such a 
wonderful series of facts with the blind action of unintelli- 
gent Law without doing violence to Reason. No law has 
ever been even remotely indicated which would determine 
the place, the thickness, and the very texture of succeeding 
strata, or which would explain how the silver, the gold, the 
lime, the iron, and the coal, are so accessible to man, and 
therefore so promotive of civilisation. In the disposition of 
the constituents of the oldest rocks, there is exhibited a 
minuteness of care, as well as a vastness of prophetic pre- 
paration, for which natural laws have indicated no explan- 
ation. How came all those inorganic substances, those 
indispensable elements without which plants perish, to be so 
stored up, and to be so related to future agencies, that they 



342 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XV. 

give forth sparingly in their season those nicely-balanced 
quantities which clothe the earth with green, enamel it with 
flowers, and enrich it with fruit? By what process of 
selection have the rocks established within themselves that 
delicately-varied texture which, with marvellous precision, 
yields to the sunshine, and the dew, and the storm, and 
other wasting influences, those homoeopathic supplies which 
plants separately and unconsciously require? Can this 
singular storage, long ages ago, of food for future plants, 
have been no more than the chance result of materials in 
chaos striving for the mastery? No power in nature has 
been pointed out as possibly leading to these marvellous 
allocations. They are commensurate with our globe, and 
they compel us to look away from themselves for an 
explanation of their order. Our first step in physical 
inquiry thus brings us into the presence of what is super- 
natural, unless we are contented to sit shrouded in mysteries, 
which may be, at least in part, removed. 

2. As we proceed, another fact presents itself which 
natural law cannot explain. Not produced in any form by 
the harmonious preparations above referred to, but depend- 
ing on them, and so acting on the substances provided as to 
turn them to uses not within the range of inorganic matter 
alone, — is Plant-life. Whence is it ? How has it appeared ? 
It is a result beyond physical law. Mark how it acts. Vital 
force overcomes the law of gravitation, and while it uses 
chemical combinations, is in origin independent of them. 
To all intents and purposes, plant-life is, in relation to the 
inorganic world, miraculous or supernatural. Higher laws 
are framed which suspend or modify chemical and mechani- 
cal forces. All that chemistry has achieved amid trans- 
formations which often startle, and always instruct us, has 
failed to organise a single form in which life may take up 



CHAP. XV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 343 

its abode. Life makes its own form, and plies its own force. 
Plant-life was a new thing in our world. It came into or 
upon it, supematurally, not from it. 

3. By another step we are brought to a new economy, 
that of Animal-life, not educed, but supervened. Although 
animals and plants are more closely related than are plants 
and the soil, yet they are essentially distinct. While there 
are intermediate or apparently transitional forms between 
plants and animals, there is, as Professor Huxley admits, a 
great difference in these two divisions of lower life " of 
which nothing is at present known." Science has not con- 
nected them, nor is it likely that it ever will. While plants 
draw their nourishment from the inorganic, animals cannot ; 
they live on the organic ; they utilise the materials which 
plants elaborate • they educe results altogether beyond the 
vegetable economy ; and they modify its laws to new ends — 
to ends which, in so far as plant power is involved, are 
supernatural. That "life can come only from life" has 
been generally accepted as an established truth. We antici- 
pate the vindication of a still more definite truth, — that 
plant-life can come only from plant-life, and animal-life only 
from animal-life. Meantime, the question of spontaneous 
generation has been so far settled by the experiments of 
M. Pasteur, 1 that we cannot accept, at this stage of the dis- 
cussion, from any less skilful analyst, mere elaborate theories 
as against his conclusions or results. 

4. Again, and higher, we have Man associated in physical 
conformation with the lower animals, yet possessed of quali- 
ties peculiar to himself. Between man and the lower 
animals, near as they approach each other in some respects, 
there is a chasm which the utmost ingenuity has failed to 



1 See p. 46. 



'G LIGHTS. 



bridge or fill. Neither Geology nor Travels have produced 
facts which accord with the reasoning of the derivationists. 
On their theory, man's origin should be traced to some 
region where he is most debased, and where, consequently, 
survival is, at first, most precarious. But " it is absurd," as 
Principal Dawson has justly observed, " to affirm of any 
species of animal or plant that it must have originated at the 
limits of its range, where it can scarcely survive at all." 1 
Much more natural is it to suppose that Man's career did 
not commence at the extreme verge of possible existence. 
Even in those regions in which the apes nearest man are 
most fully developed, the conditions of his existence are such 
as to render very improbable the supposition that man is 
descended from them. But decidedly positive testimony, 
as well as merely negative reasoning, is confirming the 
Scripture statements as to man's separate origin. Mr. 
Wallace has displaced Mr. Darwiif s conclusions by demon- 
strating the " insufficiency of natural selection " to account 
for the development of man's brain, his soft, naked, and 
sensitive skin, the structure of his foot and hand, and the 
conformation of his organs of speech ; and it has been 
frankly admitted by such as Professor Huxley, that man is 
immeasurably separated from the highest of the lower 
animals by his intellectual and moral nature. Man, made 
capable of looking " to the Unseen and Eternal," cherishes 
the distinctive idea of immortality. His intellect, with its 
power of comparing ; his reason, with its grasp to generalise ; 
his imagination, with its faculty to invent and combine; 
his conscience, with its recognition of right and wrong j his 
memory, with its power of reproducing the past j and his 



1 See Principal Dawson' 
find Man," chapter xv. 



admirable work, "The Story of the Earth 



CHAP. XV.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 345 



conceptions of responsibility, obligation, virtue, and the 
sanctions of law, — connect him with an economy which is 
utterly beyond the reach of the lower animals. In his in- 
tellectual, moral, and spiritual nature he is supernatural to 
all beneath and around him. The germs of this highest 
moral nature cannot be found in either inorganic masses or 
in the life-forms which abound beneath his sway. 

5-fcAnd must we stop here ? Is Man the first and last of 
rational and responsible beings ? Does the human race ex- 
haust the range of intellectual and moral existence ? Are 
there no higher beings in wider spheres, and subject to 
other laws than those which are known to us ? Does not 
the finger of analogy point upward And does not Scrip- 
ture assure us that the inference is legitimate, as it sheds 
light on higher ranks of moral beings — angel, archangel, and 
seraph ? 

To consider the connections or minuter relations of the 
series of economies of which we form a part, is unnecessary. 
All that we insist on is, that by an ascending series nature 
does train the observant to the idea of the supernatural. The 
idea is not merely admissible, but necessary, and its repudia- 
tion is unjustifiable. Let us not be understood as claiming 
the acknowledgment of a frequent interference on the part 
of the Creator and Preserver with the laws which he has 
established. They fulfil their function in a twofold capacity : 
they act according to their special destiny, and also in 
accordance with those demands which are made on them 
by a higher and subordinating economy. It is in that sense 
we hold the one economy to be supernatural to the other — 
plant-life to the inorganic, animal-life to plant-life, and man 
to both. Enough has been said, not only to prove the 
legitimacy of the idea, but to show that its exclusion is 
unscientific. To assert that the supernatural is " inconceiv- 



346 



BLENDING LIGHTS. 



[chap. XV. 



able," or is " the essence of all unreason," does violence to 
the facts of nature and their logical interpretation. 

The bitterness with which the idea of the supernatural is 
hunted down, can be accounted for only by the undue 
influence which any single department of study, without its 
counterpoise, may exert over even the keenest and most 
powerful intellect. While all creation, visible and invisible, 
may be regarded comprehensively as the natural under the 
control of God, we are warranted in describing as a super- 
natural result each higher economy in the ascending series 
which could not have been originated by that beneath it. 
That power which controls the subordinate, as the vital force 
in the plant controls the inorganic elements around it, is i?i 
its action relatively supernatural, but in origin it is absolutely 
supernatural. The two ideas are harmonious, though dis- 
tinct. The relatively supernatural becomes the natural 
beneath the next higher economy in the ascending series. 
The plant economy, supernatural relatively to the inorganic 
fabric, becomes natural relatively to the animal economy ■ 
and so on, upward through all stages and ranks, until we 
reach the great source of order and life — the Lord God 
Omnipotent reigning. 

But to acknowledge the reign of the Supreme Being, does 
not necessarily displace the reign of Law. Law has its 
sphere. It is universal ■ but not absolute. This is not a 
new discovery ; it is a truth shining with as much clearness 
in every page of Scripture as in the " Principia" of Newton. 
Regarding this principle, both Science and Scripture are at 
one ; the difference lies in the variety and extent of its 
applications — a difference always dependent on the progress 
of scientific discovery. But while we acknowledge the pre- 
valence of natural law, and admit that hidden laws may be 
applied by higher beings to produce what to us are super- 



CHAP.'xv.] BLENDING LIGHTS: 347 

natural results, we cannot, in homage to an imperfect 
philosophy, dissociate the Lawgiver from the works and the 
laws which he has framed. 

While the Divine Government proceeds ordinarily by the 
use of natural agencies, we are justified in firmly refusing the 
statement already adverted to, " that there is no reason for 
believing that God ever acts otherwise." The facts of 
science, as well as the intimations of Scripture, reveal actions 
without means. To institute means originally, is itself evi- 
dence of acting without means. To establish laws, is proof 
of work without laws. The reign of law is not self-originated. 
God began it, and his Will must be the rule of its continu- 
ance. Proof is accumulating. Natural Philosophy has 
already demonstrated that the present cosmical system has 
not been eternal — that it began to be, — and that it is passing 
on to change and overthrow, unless some power, not now 
acting, interpose. Geology has proved a commencement to 
our rock structure, and Biology has also attested for Life a 
beginning that is supernatural to all that previously existed. 
We are perfectly justified in assuming these to be results with- 
out self-originating means ; and it does no such violence to 
our intuitions and our reason to connect them with the 
sovereign Will of God, as it does to throw back the beginning 
of all things into the mists of a measureless eternity, and to 
assert that explanation is " inconceivable." 

Throughout the " Natural," in the fullest extent which may 
be claimed for it, there is abundant evidence of the introduc- 
tion of iSV^ternatural influence \ and if Christianity is indeed 
a system from the same hand which framed the heavens, it 
would not be in harmony with the facts which appear in the 
lower economies, if the manifestations of a supernatural 
presence in it were not at least equally distinct. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

(Subject Continued.) 

Evidence of the Supernatural in Christianity — Results in the 
History of Christianity — Conclusion. 

"The truth which really and only accounts for the establishment in 
this our human world of such a religion as Christianity, and of such an 
institution as the Church, is the truth that Jesus Christ was believed to 
be more than man, the truth that Jesus Christ is what men .believed him 
to be, the truth that Jesus Christ is God." — Canon Liddon. 

HAVING tested the historical statements in Scripture by 
evidence in other records, having noticed the peculi- 
arity with which prophecy and its fulfilment have invested 
the Bible, and having traced in the "Natural" the mysterious 
tokens of a Power working in sovereignty behind its econo- 
mies, we cannot escape the impression that the same Being 
who hath introduced into the physical world new conditions 
of structure and life, and into mental history those ideas 
which strangely or superhumanly represented future facts, 
centuries before their realisation, hath also placed in the higher 
world, — the Mental, the Moral, and the Spiritual, — those 
historical facts, those miraculous changes, and those doctrinal 
truths which lay beyond the reach alike of man's physical and 
intellectual resources. Physical changes for which no known 
natural forces can account, and prophecies for which, in the 
domain of thought, no satisfactory explanation, apart from 
the Will of God, has ever been offered, constitute of them- 
selves sufficient warrant for receiving the Bible as a divine 
Revelation, and Christianity with all its miracles as a divine 
system. Christianity claims to be supernatural. It reveals 



CHAP. XVI.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 349 

truths beyond the range of human thought, and that is 
supernatural ; it records miracles, and they are supernatural. 
The two are inseparably inwrought with one another, — the 
miracle of revelation itself, and the miracles which are 
recorded in the Scriptures. The proposal to accept the 
Bible without its prophecies, and Christianity alone without 
its miracles, is to deprive both of almost every vestige of 
moral value. The traces of the supernatural are so abundant 
in the Bible, and so distinctly characteristic of it, that to efface 
them or cut them out would be to render the Book and its 
system of truth so utterly meaningless, that it would become 
a piece of useless patchwork, with no trace of its connection 
whatever with the works of God in Creation, and that union 
which has recently become better known in the light of 
science would be unappreciated. 

The systematic study of Nature alone creates a predis- 
position to look for, and acknowledge, the Supernatural in 
any higher system of truth which might be brought within 
man's reach, and accordingly the Scriptures are so pervaded 
by tokens of a controlling presence above all that is merely 
human, that they harmonise with the evidence in Nature of 
the Supernatural. That there is development in the life of 
every individual, and that there is evolution in separate 1 
systems or economies, every one admits ; but there is not 
the least evidence to prove, as has been already fully stated, 
that the one system has been evolved from the other ; that 
the different systems of inorganic bodies, and of organised 
beings, have been evolved from some very simple beginnings ; 
and that the intellectual and moral nature of man has been 
evolved from either inorganic matter, or from some mollus- 
cous creature. 

But supposing that both development and evolution 
should be found to extend much more comprehensively in 



35° BLENDING LIGHTS. [chap. XVI. 

breadth and depth than we yet imagine, the result should 
not in the least degree affect our confidence in the dispensa- 
tions of Providence and the means of Grace. There are 
higher laws than this material frame-work, with its plant and 
animal existences, can ever exhibit ; there is the Sphere of 
Providence as it regulates individual, domestic, and national 
histories ; but beyond and above it there is the economy of 
Grace, or the Plan of Redemption, and every student is 
responsible for the mastery of its doctrines and its duties. 

On turning our attention closely to the Word of God, that 
the Economy of Grace may be known aright, we naturally 
expect that the same method of manifesting truth will be 
exhibited which appears in God's works around us, and we 
are not disappointed. The Natural and the Supernatural 
reappear in forms still more distinctly recognisable, and the 
progressiveness which we have already described as apparent 
in the adjustments of the globe and in the development of 
Life-forms, is still more obvious in the development of 
Revealed truth and in the unfolded means of Grace. At 
the very commencement of the Bible, there is that pro- 
foundly comprehensive prophecy or promise to which 
reference has already been made, — "I will put enmity 
between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her 
seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his 
heel." : All that has transpired in the history of the world 
is morally an evolution from the twofold truth in that broad 
announcement. 

" These facts at the very outset, taken in connection with 
what has followed, could not be a natural evolution of human 
thinking ; they must have been supernaturally communicated. 
The first distinctly recognised element in the revelation of 

1 Genesis iii. 15. 



CHAP. XVI.] BLENDING LIGHTS, 351 

truths which lie beyond the grasp of man is supernatural ; 
indeed, all the Facts of Grace must have a supernatural 
connection. The Bible carries in its pages abundant 
evidence of the supernatural, not only in its separate exalted 
truths, and in prophecies long mysterious, but in the whole 
foundation and scope of Christianity. The Plan of Redemp- 
tion is itself supernatural, and the communication of that 
plan, be the means what they may, was ever dependent on 
the Mind of a Being higher than man. If these views be 
refused on the plea of the Universality of Law, how account 
for those facts and movements which have transcended all 
that has yet transpired within the sphere of the material, the 
intellectual, and the moral, in any of those lands in which 
the light of Scripture has never shone ? We challenge an 
answer. The review of " Religious Beliefs," which has been 
commenced, and which, we trust, will be sedulously prose- 
cuted, cannot possibly prove that Christianity, with its ideas, 
doctrines, and precepts, is a mere evolution in the upward 
struggle of the religious sentiment in man. Its origin is 
distinctly traceable to a time when, historically, it could not 
be an evolution ; and its character at the present moment is 
so confounding to all false religions, that they could not 
possibly give it originating impulse and moulding process. 
If they did, why are they not now originating, apart from 
Christianity, a similar, or some other exalted, scheme ? 

While rejecting the natural development of Religious 
Belief, some very able Christian writers are evidently 
much perplexed by the assertion of strenuous opponents, 
that the suspension of physical laws is inconceivable, and by 
their repudiating the possibility of Spirit in any way interfer- 
ing with material processes. Of the mode in which Spirit 
so influences matter as to produce changes, we have no 
definite idea, but that Spirit can and does thus work is a 



352 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XVI. 

Fact. Whenever we raise our arm, we affect that law of matter 
by which it would hang by our side; whenever we cast a 
stone into the air, our spirit acts on matter; and so also in. 
a thousand different ways. It does not, in the least, modify 
this connection of Spirit with matter, that the human mine! 
controls it in a manner distinct from that in which the, 
Divine Spirit may be supposed to produce changes which, 
are to us miracles in both cases. The mode of action, or 
the connection with two distinct existences, is inconceivable. 
But, in reality, the action of.the Divine Spirit in making the^ 
iron swim, or in the miracle of walking on the Sea of 
Galilee, presents in itself no greater difficulties than the 
action of the human spirit on the body, and, through the 
body, on the various objects by which it is surrounded. 

There is an obvious source of weakness in the concession 
by Christian writers of absolute supremacy to what has been 
not inappropriately designated the " Reign of Law." It is 
a mistake to be ever attempting to bring the higher move- 
ments of Providence and Grace within the limits of the 
lower material processes of creation, and it is no less an 
error to be ever reasoning as if all Nature were stereotyped, 
fixed, unchangeable, incapable even of modification except by 
higher or hidden laws, which, in their own sphere, also, must 
be physical, or conformable in nature to that on which they 
act. There is, of course, the prevalence of Law ; there is 
the Order of Nature, and we count on its continuance ; 
what has been, we expect to be. By this principle, and its 
recognition, human life is regulated and utilised; but what 
has been in the past is not a logical warrant for dogmatically 
asserting that the past shall be invariably repeated in the 
future and that change or reverse is in every form impossible. 
All that can be held by us as to the future, is an expectation. 
The facts and the laws which make up what is called the 



CHAP, xvi.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 353 

constitution of our present complex physical system, depended 
at the beginning, solely on the Sovereignty of the Creator ; 
and the continuance of this system, or of any part of it, must 
ever be associated with the sovereignty of the same omnipotent 
Preserver. All that comes within the sphere of our obser- 
vation, justifies our conclusions as to Law being universal in 
the past y but it does not justify our so accepting that 
universal Law as to make it a Proposition, rendering any 
change or modification in the future impossible. l Law in 
the past warrants no more than an expectation in the future, 
— an expectation, it is true, that amounts to practical cer- 
tainty when no contrary is anticipated, but to no more, and 
therefore all reasoning as if it did amount to more is vitiated. 
It is by accepting the absolute certainty of the one aspect as 
if it equally covered what can be no more than mere 
practical certainty in the other, that many are led into error 
when interpreting Scripture and estimating the supernatural 
or miraculous. It is this really unphilosophical view which 
has led to the attempt to reduce every miracle recorded in 
Scripture to the level of Law, either open or hidden. To 
carry through their theory, its advocates are bound to 
explain all that is supernatural in Christianity. To 
leave out-standing facts unaccounted for, or to be ex- 
plained by hidden laws, is to hinder, rather than help, 
those who are anxiously turning their attention to this 
subject. 

The discussion has of late been conducted through phases 
that may well arrest and alarm the Bible student. Amid 
the demands of scepticism and the concessions of too 
generous Christian apologists, there is great danger of 

1 See Mozley's "Bampton Lectures on Miracles," chapter, Order of 
Nature, and Note 5. 

Z 



354 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XVI. 

our losing sight of what is fundamental and essential in 
Christianity. The contest is being again narrowed to 
Hume's almost lately unheeded position. The reign of 
Law is held to be more powerful than the highest 
human testimony ; and the reasonings of Campbell, 
Paley, Chalmers, and others, are unfortunately forgotten or 
neglected by many who should add them to their armoury, 
and wield them anew. While the phrase " reign of Law " 
serves, with not a few, to cover their inveterate opposition 
to the whole Christian system, it is influencing some pro- 
minent writers so much, that they appear to be hampered 
rather than aided by the miracles of the Old and New 
Testament ; and their chief concern seems to be, so to in- 
sphere them in a kind of speculative philosophy as to har- 
monise them, on the one hand, with a materialistic belief 
in the absolute reign of Law, and on the other, with an 
honest acceptance of the simple yet sublime records of 
Christianity. 

In illustration of this tendency, it may suffice to quote 
the following somewhat qualified statements : — " Yet," says 
Principal Tulloch, " when we reflect that this higher Will is 
everywhere reason and wisdom, it seems a juster as well as 
a more comprehensive view, to regard it as operating by 
subordination and evolution, rather than by ' interference ' 
or ' violation.' According to this view, the idea of Law is 
so far from being contravened by the Christian miracles, that 
it is taken up by them and made their very basis. They 
are the expression of a higher Law, working out its wise 
ends among the lower and ordinary sequences of life and 
history. These ordinary sequences represent nature — 
nature, however, not as an immutable fact, but a plastic 
medium through which a higher Voice and Will are 
ever addressing us ; and which, therefore, may be wrought 



CHAP. XVI.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 355 

into new issues, when the Voice has a new message and the 
Will a special purpose for us." 1 

The same view is advocated by the Duke of Argyll : 
" Assuredly, whatever may be the difficulties of Christianity, 
this is not one of them — that it calls on us to believe in 
any exception to the universal prevalence and power of Law. 
Its leading facts and doctrines are directly connected with 
this belief, and directly suggestive of it" (p. 51). And after 
quoting passages of Scripture to connect the Divine mission 
of the Saviour with a certain inscrutable necessity, he adds, 
"Whatever more there may be in such passages, they all 
imply the universal reign of Law in the moral and spiritual, 
as well as in the material world : that these laws had to be — 
behoved to be — obeyed ; and that the results to be obtained 
are brought about by the adaptation of means to an end ; 
or, as it were, by way of natural consequence, from the 
instrumentality employed." 2 

Doubtless, Jesus Christ was subject not only to natural 
and moral laws, but to all the requirements of Redemption, 
and the Gospel which His disciples preached is conformable 
to human necessities; but to concede all that Principal 
Tulloch and the Duke of Argyll demand, is to involve the 
whole question of Revelation and the system which it 
unfolds — Christianity — in a confusion from which it cannot 
be extricated. If their claim be granted, — that the idea of 
law is the " very basis " of Christian miracles, and that we 
are not called on "to believe in any exception" to the 
universal prevalence and power of Law, — it must suffice to 
explain all the facts which are placed before us. If it 
leave some outside their conclusion, it cannot satisfy us. 
Every miracle must be explicable by this principle, it must 

1 " Beginning^ Life," p. 86. 2 "Reign of Law," p. 52. 



35 6 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XVI. 

be ultimately referable to Law as the " basis ;" and what is 
the issue but this, that the whole system may yet be reduced 
to the ordinary level of the natural, like the formerly unex- 
plained mystery of eclipses, and we shall have no foundation 
on which to rest our hope as to the Unseen and Eternal ? 
Divested of all evidence of the supernatural, or, in other 
words, of a personal controlling power, there is nothing to 
draw the mind upward, and give it stability and comfort. 
Is this theory tenable ? Is this result possible ? We think 
not. We agree with Principal M'Cosh when he says, — 

" It should not be allowed for one moment that we are 
not at liberty to look upon an event as springing from the 
supernatural power of God, unless it can be shown to be a 
link in a concatenated combination. There is a loose and 
empty style of speaking in our day about miracles being, 
after all, referable to a higher law, which either has no 
definite meaning, or may be understood in a misleading 
sense, and, at best, is no way fitted to gain the opponents 
of supernaturalism, who by law always mean one consistent 
thing, and that is, natural law. If it is meant that miracles 
can all be referred to some higher natural law, discoverable 
or undiscoverable, the impression may be left, that they are 
like meteors, or like mesmerism, simply mysteries which 
may yet come within natural explanation, and which cannot, 
therefore, be evidential of supernatural action. If it is 
meant that they can all be referred to some supernatural 
law, known or unknown, the assertion is made without a 
warrant from revelation. . . . It is quite conceivable, 
indeed, that there may be some such law beyond our ken, 
but of what use can it be to appeal to a law unknown and 
unknowable. It is quite as conceivable that God may have 
wrought in our world an isolated occurrence, having no 
connection, physical, causal, or dependent, with any other 



CHAP. XVI.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 357 

mundane occurrence, except the profound relations which 
all things have one to another in the Divine Mind." 1 

We may with perfect consistency go even farther than the 
supposition that " it is quite conceivable that God may have 
wrought in our world an isolated occurrence ; " and assume 
the fact. We have a solid foundation on which to rest ; the 
creation of the " heavens and the earth " is an isolated oc- 
currence — the instituting of laws is an isolated occurrence — 
the origin of life is an isolated occurrence — the appearance 
of man as rational, moral, and responsible, is an isolated 
occurrence ; and we are warranted in denying the sufficiency 
of proof to the contrary. We do not claim belief that God 
ordinarily interferes with the processes of natural law. It 
has its reign. But He has interfered with law, He has 
interfered with the laws of the inorganic structure by the 
supervention of the laws of plant life, and so on upward 
through the stages which we have already described, until - 
there is no resting-place for the observant inquirer lower 
than the Infinite and Sovereign Mind. 

If this is denied on the plea of the universality of law, 
how account for even those facts of lesser import, which 
yet transcendently overtop the ordinary movements of 
material, intellectual, and moral being? Among the sub- 
ordinate in the material, we have iron rising to the surface 
apparently by the will of the prophet, but really by a higher 
power operating through man's will as its medium, and 
reversing the law by which iron sinks. When the waters of 
the Jordan ceased their course to the Dead Sea until the 
Israelites passed over, there was more than hidden laws can 
conceivably explain. Among the subordinate in the intel- 
lectual, we have Prophecy. How possibly deduce that far 

1 "The Supernatural," p. 168, 



358 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XVI. 

insight into the future, from law or evolution ? How have 
facts, centuries distant, been brought within man's grasp ? 
The prediction and its fulfilment, after an interval of many- 
centuries, have been completely adjusted. While there are 
miracles in the Christian system which perfectly harmonise 
with its exalted truths and doctrines, they cannot possibly 
be all reduced within the range of Laws either known or 
hidden. Although some of the miracles, it is true, may be 
directly associated with special ends, there are others of more 
comprehensive import which can be brought within the 
sphere of no law whatever, conformably to which God must 
necessarily act ; four may be specified which cannot be 
reasonably connected with any law in nature or behind it, 
apart from the directly controlling will of God : — i, Revela- 
tion ; 2, the Incarnation of Christ ; 3, His Resurrection ; 
and 4, His Ascension. 

. 1 . Revelation. It is in origin, absolutely supernatural. "All 
Scripture is given by inspiration of God ;" " Holy men of God 
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." As truth, it is 
relatively supernatural to those higher and highest truths 
which man himself can reach in the domain of human 
thought, and some of which, as natural, have been inwrought 
with what is the subject of direct revelation. All that is 
unfolded in Scripture as to redemption is, in origin, super- 
natural, although reaching us now through the ordinary 
channels of a written Word. 

2. The Incarnation of the blessed Redeemer is also, in 
its origin, absolutely supernatural. It can be reduced to no 
law. It is absolute as the origin of creation. But while the 
first movement of the Son in His Incarnation, and in that 
humiliation which was to be specially' His own in the 
economy of redemption, was absolutely supernatural, it was 
relatively supernatural as to " the true body and reasonable 



CHAP. XVI.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 359 

soul/' and also as to His life being holy and " separate from 
sinners." While He revealed God as He is, and man as he 
ought to be, He was in His human history subject like other 
men to the ordinary influences of material, mental, and moral 
laws ; and He thus combined in His life the natural and the 
relatively as well as the absolutely supernatural. 

3. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the centre-doctrine 
of the Christian Church, has been established by most con- 
vincing proofs. The apostles had seen Him, they had eaten 
with Him, they had touched Him, they had in different cir- 
cumstances verified their impressions ; and thereafter, " with 
great power gave the Apostles witness of the Resurrection of 
the Lord Jesus." 1 No truth is more forcibly or more dis- 
tinctly presented in the Word of God. It is the fact to which 
Christ Himself appealed as warranting his claim to the 
homage of the world. So irresistible is the evidence of the 
literal resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave, that it is 
accepted as a fact, not only by orthodox churches, but even 
by some prominent rationalistic critics who discredit His 
other miracles of power, and also his ascension into heaven. 
As it is not, however, with the proof of the fact we have to 
do, but with the explanation by which some Christian 
writers attempt to bring this great miracle within the scope 
of hidden laws, we have to urge, in reply, that although such 
is in itself imaginable, there is not a vestige of proof to 
warrant the supposition, and it is utterly inconceivable and 
inadmissible, if it is meant thereby to dissociate the result 
from the directly originating and guiding power of God. 
The attempt to explain the resurrection of Christ by referring 
it to some unknown law, increases, rather than lessens, the 
difficulty, by constraining us to read the New Testament 

1 Acts iv, 35. 



360 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XVI. 

record in a different sense from that which is obviously 
implied. We cannot place the fact of the Resurrection 
within the sphere of hidden laws without doing violence to 
plain historical statements, for Christ himself has expressly 
declared that He had power over life and death ; or, in other 
words, that He was above the sway of what we term 
Universal Law. " Therefore doth my Father love me, 
because I lay down my life that I might take it again. No 
man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have 
power to lay it down, and I have power to take it 
again." x While our human nature has been given to us, He 
assumed this nature ; " He took to himself a true body and 
a reasonable soul." These and similar declarations reveal 
in Jesus a power absolutely independent of those natural 
laws or forces, which he used supernaturally or miraculously 
in accomplishing the great ends of his mission. 

4. In the Ascension of the Lord Jesus we have another 
Fact, dazzling in its splendour, and revealing supernatural 
action. His bodily Ascension, in the presence of his 
disciples, while it overbore and set aside the universal law 
of gravitation, has given us no glimpse of any other more 
powerful counteractive law, nor any warrant, indeed, for 
supposing that such a law has ever existed. The evidence 
of the Fact itself is complete, and the manner with which it is 
described has singular impressiveness. " And he led them 
out as far as to Bethany ; and he lifted up his hands, and 
blessed them. And it came to pass while he blessed them, 
he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And 
when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was 
taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight." 2 
There is no possible explanation of these words but that 

1 John x. 17, 18. 8 Luke xxiv. 50, 51 ; Acts i. 9. 



CHAP. XVI.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 3 61 

which their obvious meaning suggests. Jesus has ascended 
to glory ; and we think it unnecessary, with those who 
accept the Bible narrative as true, either to state the objec- 
tions of such as Strauss, or the answers of such as Ebrard. 
There may have been the adaptation or the introduction of 
higher laws to facilitate ascent, thus constituting here, also, 
relatively supernatural action ; but in the outgoing of the 
will and power of Jesus, there was the absolutely super- 
natural. Like the Incarnation and the Resurrection of Jesus 
Christ, his Ascension is mysterious in its process ; it cannot 
possibly be explained by physical science ; it is a fact, at the 
same time, which is but the natural — we may add — the in- 
evitable, outcome from the resurrection. Jesus had risen; and 
as he was not again to die, it was essential that he should pass 
from his earthly existence in a supernatural way, and it was 
consoling to his sorrowing disciples, as it is now satisfactory to 
every believer, to have the facts of his departure distinctly 
stated, although that departure to a higher sphere cannot be 
proved by even the ingenuity of modern science to have 
been in the least degree conformable to any ordinary or 
known or hidden laws. But the fact is certain, like the 
Resurrection itself; and as the Resurrection is but the 
beginning of the Ascension, —as it is in his grave the first 
ray of his future glory shines, — both facts must stand or fall 
together. 

IV. Results in the History of Christianity. 

In Revelation, the Incarnation of Christ Jesus, His 
Death, Resurrection, and Ascension, apart from many other 
impressive events, there is such a singular yet perfectly 
harmonious combination, not only of miracles but of 
doctrines, as renders Christianity easily distinguishable from 
every other religious system, and as naturally leads every 
unprejudiced student to anticipate corresponding results, 



362 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XVI. 

And so it is. The history of Christianity in the world is 
its best interpreter, it reveals a series of changes so distinct 
as to be easily traceable in the character of individuals and 
of nations ; it represents the evolution of doctrine in the 
higher life of renewed men, and it is ever exhibiting all 
those remedial influences which faith in Jesus Christ enables 
man everywhere to appropriate. 

As this subject is too extensive to be fully discussed 
within the space at our disposal, we must restrict ourselves 
to a brief review of those results which depend on doctrines 
chiefly related to the Person of Christ, and which are mani- 
fested in Individual, Social, and National Life. 

1. The Doctrines to which reference has been made, create 
a new motive to action and sustain an ennobling aim. 
Love and holiness are their natural fruits. In the multifari- 
ous religions of the world, this motive to action and this aim 
were absent. There was an abiding and ever deeply felt 
want, which they utterly failed to remove or lessen. The 
sublime moral maxims of Oriental nations, — the early learning 
of Egypt, — the philosophic and aesthetic culture of Greece, — 
and the jurisprudence of Rome, rising from the midst of an 
all-embracing idolatry, — never produced any results approach- 
ing those which the preaching of the gospel has diffused 
through every generation. For at least six thousand years, 
the world has done its best to repress evil and lessen sorrow, 
but has failed. Untaught by experience, the world continues 
its vain struggle. Philosophy has long striven to solve 
the problem of human life, and has failed. Poetry has 
long sung its most ennobling strains, and has failed. 
Political wisdom has run its course of secular expedients, 
and has failed. Unaided humanity has had no spirit with 
power enough to rise above its own dark and troubled 
waters, and evolve from its chaos light, beauty, and stability. 



CHAP. XVI.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 363 

But in the doctrines of the Cross, in the Gospel revealing 
the love of God in Christ Jesus, there is the supernatural 
introduction of a new motive power, — there is that which is 
changing the intellectual and moral aspects of the whole 
world. Although heathen philosophers understood not the 
gospel, the olden prophets proclaimed its power ; although 
earliest poets could assign it no place in their strains, it 
gave a tenderer thrill to David's lyre, and with it Solomon 
enriched his song ; although to the Greek it was foolishness, 
and to the Jew a stumbling-block, it became mighty to the 
pulling down of the strongholds of Satan; and although 
Saul of Tarsus constrained men to attempt to swear it down, 
it subdued his own heart, and led him, in the face alike of 
friend and foe, henceforth with unfaltering tongue to pro- 
claim his one great resolve, — " God forbid that I should 
glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

The doctrines of the Cross, as dependent not on a system 
but on a Person, Jesus Christ, gave the motive power that 
was needed by the world to connect, through grace, its 
knowledge of the right, with the doing of it. In the 
wondrous truths of the Incarnation of the Son of God, of 
His death, of His resurrection, and of His ascension, is 
much of the vitalising power which, by the Holy Spirit, is 
re-animating a perishing world, and, enriching it with moral 
loveliness. These truths represent pre-eminently the love 
and the wisdom of God as originating that which, in the 
gift of the Son, was absolutely supernatural. " For God so 
loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life." l " And we have seen, and do testify, that 
the Father hath sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world." 2 



1 John iii. 16. 2 I. John iv. 14. 



364 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XVI. 

This giving of the Son, — this " God sent His Son/' — can, 
by no conceivable process of thought, be referred to any 
law. Its secrets are in the Divine counsels. With what 
singular exactness the apostles' delineation of the life and 
character of Jesus corresponds with the simple yet sublime 
announcement of the Evangelist ! " God sent not His Son 
into the world to condemn the world ; but that the world 
through Him might be saved." 1 " Let this mind be in you, 
which was also in Christ Jesus : who, being in the form of 
God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but 
made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the 
form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men ; 
and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, 
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the 
Cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and 
given Him a name which is above every name : that at the 
name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, 
and things in earth, and things under the earth ; and that 
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to 
the glory of God the Father." 2 

2. These and similar descriptions separate the Bible from 
all other books, and Christ Jesus from all other persons. 
In the announcement of His Advent, and in the records of 
His Life, there is a history which rises above all histories. 
Christ can no more be classified with mankind, than His 
miracles can be reduced to ordinary events. His whole life 
attests the truth that He is from above, and that He came 
to save the lost. Christianity is, in this view, "a historically 
superhuman movement in the world, that is visibly entered 
into it, and organised to be an institution in the person of 
Jesus Christ. He is the central figure ; He is the unfailing 

1 Johniii. 17. s Philippians ii. 5-1 1, 



CHAP. XVI.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 3 6 5 

power; and, with Him, the entire fabric either stands or 
falls." l Christ was himself a revelation of God, " He was 
the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His 
person j " he was " God manifest in the flesh." Humble 
as He was among men, He willed to be a king, and His 
ministerial work was one continued proclamation of His 
absolute and unrivalled sway ; and when that ministry on 
earth had terminated, He encouraged His disciples by the 
declaration, " All power is given unto me in heaven and in 
earth," and by the thrilling promise, " Lo, I am with you 
alway, even unto the end of the world." As we study His 
character and His claims, we are constrained to acknowledge 
the truth of Isaiah's prophecy, — " And His name shall be 
called Wonderful; " 2 and " we discover, as did the first 
Christians, beneath and beyond all that meets the eye of 
sense and the eye of conscience, the Eternal Person of our 
Lord himself. It is not the miracles, but the Maker ; not 
the character, but the living subject ; not the teaching, but 
the Master; not even the Death or the Resurrection, but 
He who died and rose again; upon whom Christian 
Thought, Christian Love, Christian Resolution, ultimately 
rest." 3 To Him alone believers on earth, like the ransomed 
in glory, turn as " all their salvation and all their desire." 

The Person of the Lord Jesus is the very foundation of 
Christianity. He is its source and its support. He is its 
embodiment. As well take the Sun from our system, as 
Christ from Christianity. Philosophy can exist apart from 
the philosopher, Science from the scientist, Art from the 
artist; but not so Christianity. Platonism may remain 
though Plato may be himself forgotten, astronomy may 

1 See Bushnell's "Nature and the Supernatural," chapter x. 

2 Isaiah ix. 6. 

3 Licldon's Bampton Lectures on "Our Lord's Divinity," p. 146. 



366 BLENDING LIGHTS. [chap. XVI. 

remain though Newton or Laplace may not once reappear 
in the student's memory, and so of all human systems ; but 
Christianity without Christ evanishes as intellectual vapour, 1 
and becomes alike powerless and unprofitable. This lowly 
Jesus has become the great centre of thought in the civilised 
world. Men cannot rest in his teaching alone, or his 
doctrines ; they see in them all Himself, and everywhere 
they are now in the profoundest sense acknowledging His 
intellectual and moral pre-eminence. Religious controversies 
have removed from their old positions, and they are con- 
centrating their forces around the person of Jesus. The 
highest scholarship, the most cultivated taste, and the 
profoundest philosophy, have united their resources in 
analysing His character and in portraying His life. 

Intellectually and emotionally, is the prophetic declaration 
being fulfilled : "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will 
draw all men unto me." Thought and feeling from opposite 
poles are drawn to Him, whether in knowledge, in faith, in 
love, in adoration, or in hate and fear. Among learned men, 
He is in the midst now as when in the temple He "was sitting 
in the midst of the doctors asking them questions," and taxing 
their learning and their wisdom. Scepticism and unbelief are 
accustomed to examine His claims, and ever as they strive to 
escape, they turn to look on Him, as Peter met His glance 
when, in cowardice, he swore he knew not the man. 

3. Not only are the fundamental conditions and the 
essential truths of Christianity miraculous in their origin, but 
they are supernatural in the results which they produce. Its 
ideas of God, its clear delineations of heaven, its demands of 
holiness, of love, of patience, of self-denying toil, not for 
the indigent only, but for enemies, its commands to believe 

1 Liddon's "Our Lord's Divinity," p. 127. 



CHAP. XVI.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 367 

in the Lord Jesus Christ, and its fulness of consolation 
through the Holy Spirit the Comforter, are blessings which 
are inseparable from true Christianity, but which are dis- 
coverable in no other religious system. Truly, Christendom 
is not the creation of mere human thought and will. Guizot 
has informed us that in studying for the annotation of 
Gibbon, he became impressed " not only with the moral and 
social grandeur of Christianity, but with the difficulty of ex- 
plaining it by purely human forces and causes." 

(a). The fruits of Christianity in Individual character are 
apparent. Union to Christ by faith is the condition of enjoy- 
ments which never cease, it is the source of that " peace of 
God which passeth all understanding," and intensifies that 
love through which believers become more than conquerors 
in their constant struggle with spiritual foes. 

Christianity, originated in love, is manifested in every 
man by himself, and by him in the world. The perfection 
of the individual is its first aim ; and the second, the right 
use of that perfection in the world for its improvement and 
happiness. It takes man as he is, sunken and debased, or 
intellectually equipped and socially refined, and, creating in 
him the consciousness of sin, stimulating his sense of re- 
sponsibility to the All-Seeing and Just Ruler, and leading 
him to feel, in the solitude of guilt, as if none existed save 
himself and his God, it directs him to that blessed Redeemer 
who hath said to the guiltiest and the vilest, " Come unto 
Me all ye that labour, and I will give you rest." Thus may 
those whose life has been most enslaved to sin become 
" heirs of God," and exclaim, " Behold what manner of love 
the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the 
sons of God." They are " new creatures," and strive to meet 
through grace all the demands of their higher sphere. The 
perfection which is to be reached is special ; it is not exactly 



368 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XVI - 



that of an unfallen being, but, resting on a distinct founda- 
tion, and having new characteristics, it is specified as 
"perfection in Christ Jesus." The affections purified, tie 
understanding enlightened, the will submissive, the conscience 
made sensitive and strengthened, the imagination regulated, 
t a love abounding " yet more and more in knowledge and 
in .11 judgment," are universal results in Christian life. 
Every man is summoned to know, to act, and to be for 
himself alone as accountable to God. He is encouraged to 
loo 1 "into the perfect law of liberty" that he may learn, 
— to learn that he may be a " doer of the work," and to do 
that he may be " blessed in the deed." What he knows, 
he is to apply ; what he receives, he is to distribute ; what 
intellectual, moral, and spiritual influences benefit his own 
life, he is freely to communicate to others, for the common 
good. Thus does Christianity blend the doctrinal and the 
practical, theology and religion, the sublimest truths with the 
commonest duties of daily life. 

(b): In social, as well as in individual life, the assimilative 
influences of Christianity are distinctly visible. The power 
which, in the breast of every believer, subdues and controls 
his warring passions, no less effectively commands and 
regulates the surging movements of society. Without de- 
manding any change in the external arrangements of society, 
it has infused a new spirit, broken down the middle wall of 
partition between Jew and Gentile, and revolutionised the 
old estimate of distinctions between high and low, learned 
and unlearned. It has rebuked selfishness in every form ; 
and care for the poor, long regarded as no part of society at 
all, 1 but only as materials to be wasted in war or in the 
drudgery of home services, it has not only inculcated by new 
arguments, but sustained by new motives. 

1 See Bushnell's "Nature and the Supernatural," p. 241. 



CHAP, xvi.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 369 



At the time of Christ's appearing, a kindly regard to the 
poor had perished amid even the stirring injunctions of 
Mcses, the psalmist, and the prophets. Selfishness was 
supreme. The ordinary duties of common philanthropy 
were but feebly if at all discharged. Mutual love, in its 
noblest sense, had ceased to be recognised by the Jews a? ' 
principle of action. Because distasteful and unpopular} 
the topic found no place in the disquisitions of the morali^ s 
or the religious expositors of that degenerate age. The 
Sadducees had no motive by which to stimulate or sustain 
self-denial, and the Pharisees, teaching, with untroubled 
conscience, ungrateful children to evade the fifth command- 
ment, and defraud their parents of that filial aid which the 
Law of God and the instincts of their own nature taught 
them to render freely, either shunned or disowned the 
subject. In the midst of this heartless laxity of moral 
principle Jesus appeared, and, while by his life he established 
principles which completely revolutionized the ethics of the 
world, he spoke to the heart and conscience of man with a 
spirituality and power never before approached by prophet, 
or priest, or psalmist. 

In his ministry, human slavery lost the foundation which 
tradition and custom had given it, and its last argument 
perished in the overwhelming fulness of that gospel which 
was henceforth to be preached to all nations. Woman 
also was assigned her rightful place ; but although eighteen 
centuries have passed since Christianity restored and 
honoured woman's claims, her sunken condition in the 
midst of Eastern civilisation is still as signal as it is in those 
dark places which savage ferocity wantonly stains with 
human blood. 

Not only has Christianity shielded the poor, and uplifted 
woman, but it has diffused those genialising influences 



'to 
2 A 



37° BLENDING LIGHTS. [chap. XVI. 

which bless the outcast, the maimed, the diseased, and the 
infirm. It pleads for them, and shelters them in the asylum, 
the almshouse, and the hospital. On objects or themes like 
these the eloquence of heathenism never spent its strength. 
In Christianity alone can we find a higher eloquence plying 
its power on behalf of the suffering poor than ever thrilled 
the councils and the courts of ancient heathenism. In short, 
in no part of the world has there ever been raised any social 
structure so beautiful in aspect, so lovely in proportion, so 
truly generous in spirit, and so effective in methods, as that 
which Christianity creates and adorns. 

(c). Those forces which beneficially operate in society, 
permeate with no less effect communities and Empires. As 
the individual is the type of society, so society represents 
national character. As society retains its external aspects, 
even when animated by the spirit of Christianity, so nation- 
alities may be expected still to retain their distinctive 
characteristics, when they are all one in spirit. The idea of 
a world-wide dominion does not require the absorption of 
all nationalities into one vast empire, but it represents them 
associated as are members of the same family, who yet differ 
from one another. Not the kingdom of this world, but " its 
kingdoms, are to become the kingdoms of our Lord." 

This oneness of many kingdoms, with widely differing 
forms, is dependent on the oneness of principle which Jesus 
Christ himself embodies. Love and holiness are its charac- 
teristics. Love is its compacting power, and holiness its 
universal expression. The mind which was in Christ is 
to be in the Christian. The world is to become of " one 
mind in the Lord." To this universality of empire the 
Scriptures direct us. The unity of God and the unity of the 
human race, as taught in Scripture, presuppose the ulti- 
mate unity of the kingdoms of the world. Diversity 



CHAP. xvt. J BLENDING LIGHTS. 37 1 



of races and of nationalities does not necessitate the 
abandonment of the idea that Jesus shall be acknowledged 
" Lord of all." Christianity does not obliterate, in the indi- 
vidual, mental characteristic, or produce a monotonous uni- 
formity. After conversion, each continues himself 'as before 
it. Though modified, constitutional qualities abide. The 
Prophets and the Apostles were one in spirit, though easily 
distinguishable in their representation of that spirit. The 
genius of Isaiah, the pathos of Jeremiah, the statesmanship 
of Daniel, the philosophic thoughtfulness of St. John, and 
the reasoning power of the apostle Paul, not only retained 
their lustre undiminished, but had their intensity increased 
by faith in the truth as it is in Jesus. Thus also may nations 
be so diversified as to be apparently antagonistic, while in 
reality they shall be of one mind in Christ. In this idea of a 
universal sway over the human mind by one Lord, there is 
surpassing grandeur. That the idea of a universal kingdom 
had a place in Babylonian, if not indeed long before, in 
Egyptian, history is certain. Nebuchadnezzar's dream, at 
least, contemplated a kingdom that shall "not be left to 
other people, but that shall break in pieces and consume all 
those kingdoms, and that shall stand for ever and ever." 
Cyrus, Alexander, and Caesar attempted to realise this idea, 
but they utterly failed. 1 The one true idea was couched in the 
first promise to our first parents, and it had continuous and 
consistent development in the Scriptures until the close of 
the Old Testament ; but the Jews mistaking the import of 
revelation, looked for a material organisation, and they 
missed the Truth. 

As an idea, it is surpassed in grandeur only by the history 
of the means through which it is to be realised. Great con- 

1 See Luthardt's "Fundamental Truths of Christianity," pp. 227-230, 



37 2 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XVI. 

querors sought to influence nations through their princes ; 
they treated only with the mighty. But Jesus began with 
the lowest ; He went to the basement of society to uplift 
and permeate its whole mass; He was born among the poor, 
His lot was in their midst ; He was identified with them, and 
made them the special objects of His ministry. To the dis- 
ciples of John, who put the question to him whether he was 
the Christ, He answered, as evidence of His mission, "And 
the poor have the gospel preached to them f and now only 
is the world awakening to a just conception of the marvel- 
lous sublimity of the blending benevolence, wisdom, and 
power which appear in the very commencement of the Sa- 
viour's work. 1 

The moral magnificence of His undertaking is all the more 
impressive when we remember that this kingdom has to be 
established by the diffusion of principles which are ever in- 
tensely distasteful to human nature. Not only did Judaism 
and heathenism dislike the demand for inmost holiness as the 
basis of external consistency, but they regarded with invet- 
erate repugnance the very thought of a universal religion 
which should subdue the whole world and extend throughout 
succeeding generations. 

How, therefore, could Christianity be the natural outcome 
of powers ' which sought its instant destruction through the 
crucifixion of the Saviour, and which have for the last 
eighteen centuries relentlessly resisted its extension ? 

The inference that Christianity is a mere historical result, 
evolved by slow changes from ancient religions, though 
plausible, is really futile. That there was a preparation in 
mental conditions for the Son of Man's Advent, as there 
had been in material conditions for our first parents, — that 

1 See Bushnell's "Nature and the Supernatural," chapter x, 



chap, xvi.] BLENDING LIGHTS. 373 

there were "unconscious prophecies of heathenism" 1 pointing 
to Jesus as the " Desire of all nations," few will be disposed 
to deny ; but that conclusion is widely different from the 
notion that Christianity is the mere natural growth of the 
old religions of Paganism, as man is, in the belief of some, 
the lineal descendant of the monkey tribe. Voltaire and 
his school revelled, — and blundered egregiously as they 
revelled, — in their reasoning, that Christianity was the puny 
offspring of Eastern religions. We do not require to doubt or 
deny that, in false religious systems, there may readily be 
found some truths which have their counterpart in Christianity; 
but Christianity is so far in advance of them all, that no one 
can really trace its outcome from Paganism; it has also 
diffused practices which have no counterpart in any other 
system, and for whose existence there is no satisfactory 
explanation whatever, apart from the Bible. It has 
no originality, if it is regarded merely as an illustra- 
tion of moral truths embodied in ancient philosophy, or if 
it is held to be no more than the last utterance of some dog- 
matic traditions which have in varying forms existed in all 
religions. 2 Students have spoken too hastily. The "Science 
of Religion" has not yet assumed any definite outline. Max 
Miiller admits this. 3 We can afford to wait, and also to 
welcome any other discoveries that may be made. The 
bitter inferences of Voltaire have been rejected even by 
those scholars who are indifferent to the Bible, and we can 
look with calm interest to the growth of a science of religion, 
promoted by the recent discovery of authentic documents of 
the most influential religions in the ancient world. The 
Bible has nothing to fear from the Canonical Books of Bud- 

1 See Trench's " Hulsean Lectures," 1846. Introductory Lecture. 

2 See De Pressense's " Religions before Christ," concluding chapter, 
8 Max Muller's " Chips from a German Workshop," p. 378. 



374 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XVI. 



dhism, the Zend-Avesta of Zoroaster, and the Hymns of 
Rigveda, although revealing what religions were existing 
before that old mythology which was a ruin even in 
Homer's time. 1 Tested by their practical results they all 
fail ; they cannot be compared with Christianity in its love, 
in its holiness, in its missionary spirit. While these religions 
are limited to Asia, the Gospel has its sanctuaries in all lands, 
and its glorious aim is, through the grace of God and by his 
Holy Spirit, to reach every heart and home in the world. 

(d.) In the face of all this, we are met by the repeated 
assertion that Christianity has failed, that it is effete, and 
must be abandoned. But to this it may be answered, Is it 
true ? Have ever sunken tribes been found which it has 
failed to uplift and enrich? Has ever nation been found 
which has been ruined by the adoption of its principles ? 
Is not the continuous history of Christianity the refutation of 
such assertions ? 

The triumphs of the gospel in Asia, Europe, and Africa, 
during the earlier centuries, have arrested the thought of 
even the most indifferent, and have taxed the philosophy 
of the sceptic to account for their completeness. 

In comparatively recent times, the most ferocious and 
debased cannibal tribes have been subdued by the influence 
of the gospel, — the most sunken tribes in the world, — 
men of all races, of all grades in society, and of all stages 
in culture, have rejoiced in the blessing of which, through 
faith in Jesus Christ, they have become partakers. 

It were easy to adduce ample testimony to the power of 
the gospel in rooting out the most debasing social practices 
and in overturning long-established systems of idolatry. 
The records of Missionary enterprise vindicate the claim of 

1 Max Muller's "Chips from a German Workshop," p. 378. 



CHAP. XVI. J BLENDING LIGHTS. 3 75 

the gospel to be the one mighty power which is destined to 
revolutionise and exalt the world ; but we can do little more 
than refer the reader to some of them. The South Sea 
Islanders, for instance, physically a noble race, and favoured 
with Nature's richest products, were idolaters, destitute of 
principle, ferocious in war, murderers of their offspring, and 
stained with the blood of human sacrifices, have been so 
changed as to present, in some instances, the comeliness, 
the spirit, and grace of civilised communities. And the 
Fuegians, small in stature, filthy, and almost hopelessly 
debased, have been in part reclaimed and uplifted. Dr. 
Livingstone, whose impartiality all acknowledge, gives it as 
his conclusion, after carefully noting the effects of Christianity 
on many hundreds of the Griquas and Bechuanas, and com- 
paring them not with what appears in Britain, but with 
practices in neighbouring tribes, that if the whole subject 
were examined in the severest and most scientific way, the 
changes effected by the missionaries would be reckoned 
unquestionably very great. No tribe has ever yet been 
found so sunken as to be beyond the power of Divine 
truth, when presented in the gospel message. In every 
part of the habitable globe where the voice of the missionary 
has been heard, most notable changes have been effected, 
and the sufficiency of divine grace has been most distinctly 
manifested. The boasted systems of the East have proved 
barren of similar results. There is in them no missionary 
spirit, because there is, and there can be, no love as a motive 
force. Mohammedanism, Buddhism, and other systems, are 
now circumscribed, apathetic, and monotonous ; they seek no 
outlet, they are destitute of enthusiasm, and are, therefore, 
without missionaries to the most distant parts of the earth. 

The field which lay before us at the outset of these 
lectures has been traversed, and if we have found in our 



37 6 BLENDING LIGHTS. [CHAP. XVI. 

survey more to encourage than perplex the Bible student, 
our object has been gained. Studies which have been 
prosecuted in the various departments of Natural Science, 
Archaeology, and History, sometimes with the avowed object 
of confuting the Bible, — as well as many of those incidental 
inferences which have been the result of purely scientific 
inquiry, — have so often become the sources not only of 
defence, but of singularly attractive and instructive exposi- 
tions of Scripture passages which before were somewhat 
obscure, that we may well rejoice in the assurance that 
whatever difficulties remain shall disappear in the fuller 
light of extending knowledge, and that fail or change what 
may, the " Word of the Lord endureth for ever." 




THE END. 



J. AND J. COOK, PRINTERS, PAISLEY, 



JUN 



